


Contact High

by Amour_et_Malheur



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Anxiety, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, I'll probably be adding some more characters later, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Personal Growth, So much angst, but once it gets going it will be hot, kind of a slow relationship build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 18:49:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 78,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9780404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amour_et_Malheur/pseuds/Amour_et_Malheur
Summary: Armin is a freshman at a university that lies smack-dab in the middle of a modern-day city. He is determined that his college life is going to be different from his woeful experience in high school. On the very first day though, he meets someone who will put this desire to the test in more than just one way...





	1. No It Don't Come Easy

**Author's Note:**

> Hai.  
> So this is my very first submission of any kind. There may be some road bumps, but it's a learning experience, right? I hope anyone who reads this enjoys, and I will welcome ALL criticisms and comments.  
> Anyway, here's some music to go along with this particular chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we-Xu3Q_FW0  
> I'll try to post a track to each chapter that is relevant to what is going on. This one represents the feelings that are beginning to kindle in Armin's heart ;D

The sun rose on a late August Monday morning, and with it came the oppressive heat that usually accompanies these end of summer days. It would have been a typical morning, except that it was the first day of classes for the fall semester. A blonde haired boy groggily opened his eyes and dismissed the alarm on his phone as it ripped him away from what was a rather peaceful sleep. He stretched his arms out and yawned, silently wishing that he could have just one more day of rest. He had just moved into the college’s dorm building over the weekend, and was still pretty worn out after all the unpacking he had to do. His grandpa had helped, but it was still a bit of work for just two people.

All thoughts of having one more day of summer vacation vanished when he remembered that today would be the first day of his college experience. No more days of high school where he was picked on for constantly having the highest GPA of his classmates, or for not being as athletic as the other kids (even though he wasn’t a bad runner on the cross country and track teams), or never really having much of a romantic life. This was a new chapter of his life, and he was going to be sure that the words that would soon be written were going to make it so that all of the painful memories of his past never bothered him again.

As he walked towards his bathroom to take a quick shower, his foot bumped against one last cardboard box that he had brought from home. On it was written his name in black marker: Armin Arlert. He made a mental note to toss it in the dumpster outside when he left.

After his shower, he got dressed in clothes he had laid out the night before. He wanted to keep it pretty simple, but also look nice too. First impressions matter after all. He wore some khaki pants which neatly ended right at the tops of his olive green corduroy converses, and a v-neck shirt that had some black mixed into the overall brown color.

Armin grabbed his book bag and keys and began to walk towards the door leading out of the dorm room. As he opened the door, his roommate walked into the kitchen to make a sandwich before he himself left for his first class. His name was Jean and he was taller than Armin, but that really didn’t take much. His hair was shorter and a light brown color and he had a face that somewhat reminded Armin of a horse.

“Off to class?” Jean asked. “I’ll probably end up being late. Great way to start off the semester…”

Armin laughed slightly, “Yeah, but I’m sure there will be other people who are late today too. This campus is so big and spread out. Luckily my class is in the main classroom building, and I at least know where that one is at.”

Jean began pulling out bread to make his sandwich when he replied, “Yeah, no kidding. I mean, I guess that’s what we get for attending a school in the middle of a city. And I think my class is in a building that’s on the completely other side of downtown. Oh well.”

Armin smiled as he began to head out the door, “Well, good luck! See you in the evening.”

“Peace, man.” Jean said, still busily preparing his sandwich.

And with that, Armin began his journey to his first class, which happened to be chemistry. Although he did well in that subject (like he did in pretty much every subject), he didn’t particularly enjoy the material. How could anyone get excited over things like covalent bonds, or moles, or all the conversion equations that one had to memorize? He enjoyed biology much more, but he had decided to get chem out of the way first.

Eventually, after walking a few blocks and crossing over several crosswalks while dodging drivers who thought they owned the road, he made it to the main classroom building of the university. The lecture hall was on the second floor, and was a bit larger than he expected. It could easily hold 100 people he estimated. There was a good amount of people in there already, but there were still 10 more minutes until the 9 AM class officially began. He took a seat in the third row and got out a notebook and pencil. He didn’t want to look too overeager by sitting all the way in the front.

As the 10 minutes went by and more and more people filed in to take their seats, Armin happened to look up and see a guy enter and make his way down towards the row he was sitting in. He had dark hair and eyes that were of a shade of green that immediately caught Armin’s interest. He stared at him perhaps a moment longer than would be normal and began to look back down at his notebook when those green eyes locked onto Armin’s own blue ones. He smiled at him and nodded slightly and took a seat in the fifth row. Armin returned the smile and nod and quickly turned away.

 _Well, that was kind of awkward_ , he thought to himself. It’s the first day of class and he’s already staring at a random guy like some sort of creeper.

He didn’t have long to dwell on the situation because the professor had entered the room and promptly began class. She basically just went over the syllabus and informed them what textbook and lab manuals they would need before dismissing class 15 minutes early. As the students all made their way up the stairs and out of the room, Armin found that he was walking right next to the same guy he’d been staring at before. He was doing his best to make it seem like he took no notice of this, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that this guy was watching him…

 _No_ , he thought. _I’m just imagining things. This is just wishful thinking._

As he left the room, he decided he would go to his second class now, even though he had close to half an hour before it started. It was in a building that he was unfamiliar with though, so he figured he could use this extra time to his advantage by looking for it. He noticed that the green-eyed guy had gone in the opposite direction though. A sense of slight disappointment hit him, but he continued on his way.

He didn’t get more than 15 feet when he stopped in his tracks and the incredulity of what had just happened hit him: _Why did I think that it was wishful thinking that he was watching me??_


	2. Here We Go Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to go ahead and put this chapter up today too. I mean, I had it written, so why not? The next bit is still under construction, but I hope to have it up by the end of the week.   
> And here is the song for this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPub2CzBEVM  
> A bit of a light and humorous track xD

It was Tuesday evening when Armin decided to head to the campus library to do a bit of reading. He had already bought all the required text books for his various classes, and he figured it couldn’t hurt to do some proactive skimming through the various chapters of his world history book. He quite liked history, in fact. Reading about the various civilizations, both extinct and extant, that made up the world and of the people who lived in them never failed to stir feelings of wonder in him.

Even though it was only the second day of classes, he was pretty exhausted. He and the rest of the students had been given a lot of information about what was in store for them for the semester. After reading a section on the Roman Republic, he closed his book and began to rise from his seat by the window that overlooked the glimmering lights of the city as night descended. That was when he noticed a familiar form sitting at a computer nearby.

It was the same guy in his chemistry class from the day before.

He looked rather frustrated though. His brow was furrowed and he had one hand pushing up his dark brown bangs while the other rested on the computer mouse. He was frowning at whatever was on the screen.  

Armin couldn’t help but think he still looked sort of cute even in that state.

_Wait, what am I doing?_ Armin thought to himself. _I don’t even know him. Who knows what kind of person he is._

Just as Armin swung his book bag over his shoulders and began to make for the exit to the library, those green eyes looked up from the computer screen and locked onto him. They brightened a little, and he sat up.

Try as he might, Armin couldn’t look away, and that’s when he heard, “Hey, you’re in the 9 AM chem class on Mondays and Wednesdays, right? Could you help me with something real quick?”

Armin’s heart rate increased involuntarily. Did he notice him staring like a creep? Is he trying to diffuse an awkward situation by just being nice? Could he get away with pretending not to hear him and just keep walking?

Armin answered his own paranoid thoughts by replying, “Yeah, sure! What’s up?”

This should be great. If there was anything Armin had learned about most of his interactions with people in high school, it was that he would inevitably make some sort of socially awkward mistake and be labeled as “that weird kid” from then on. It always turned out that way.

He walked over to the computer when he noticed the class registration screen.

“I’m just trying to switch some classes around because I realized today that philosophy is not for me,” the emerald-eyed guy said. “Two 500 word discussion posts a week on the ethics of some two thousand year old dead guys? Yeah, no thanks.”

Armin laughed slightly at this. He didn’t mind philosophy himself, but he knew it really boiled down to the teacher and how they presented the material.

“Sure, I’ll help if I can,” he offered.

“Thanks! My name is Eren, by the way,” and he held his hand out to Armin.

“Armin,” their hands met, and Armin took note of how soft and smooth this foreign palm was.

“Nice to meet you, Armin,” Eren said with a smile.

He turned back to the monitor screen and pointed at his weekly schedule, “I’m thinking of taking this public speaking class to make up for dropping philosophy. The only problem is that I could only work it into my schedule if I dropped our chem class, and I really like our professor…”

Well, so much for being in the same class together.

“Hmm, well you could take this one that’s offered at 8 AM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?” Armin suggested.

“And wake up even earlier than I did yesterday? AND have to do it on Friday when I would otherwise have only one class? Nah,” Eren dismissed the idea right out.

That was the only other option besides dropping the chemistry class altogether and taking a public speaking class that was longer but only on Mondays and Wednesdays.

“I’m sorry; I don’t see a way of making it work then…” Armin said in a rather defeated voice.

Eren’s face fell, “Ah, well thanks anyway.” His eyes travelled to the book that was in Armin’s hands, “What class is that for? It’s huge.”

Armin looked down to the rather large textbook he was carrying, “Oh, this is for my psychology class. Even though it’s just an introductory class, the book is pretty big. I picked it up right after class a few hours ago.”

“What time is the class offered?” Eren asked.

“From 3 to 4:15,” Armin answered.

Eren’s face lit up in what could only be described as delight, “That’s perfect! That’s exactly when my philosophy class was! What’s the exact name of the class?”

After a few minutes, Eren had registered for the psyc class. Although it was at the same time as Armin’s, it was unfortunately in another building across campus, as all the spots were filled in the particular class that Armin was in. Armin couldn’t help but feel that Eren seemed a little disappointed at this.

Of course, this had to be just Armin’s imagination. Why would he be disappointed about not being in a class with Armin? No one would ever feel let down about something like that.

“Well, thanks for helping me out,” Eren said while logging off the computer.

“It’s no problem,” Armin said back. “And if you decide that the psyc class is out of your league too, I’ll be happy to find another class for you as well!”

Welp, there it was. The social faux-pas making its appearance right on cue.

Eren paused slightly as he was standing up and made a sort of nervous laughing sound, “…Yeah. I’ll let you know. Um, thanks again.”

Armin faltered a bit before saying, “I didn’t mean to imply that you aren’t smart or anything. I just meant that if you ever need help rearranging your schedule before the week is up, I’ll help if I can. I think you’ll be fine though!”

Yep, this was ending just like Armin knew it would. Typical. High school all over again.

“Yeah, no, of course,” Eren said hurriedly. “I’ll definitely let you know. I’m going to grab some dinner from the diner though. See you tomorrow?”

Armin’s heart felt like it was helplessly sinking in quicksand. “Yeah. See you tomorrow.”

Eren smiled slightly and nodded his head before walking towards the exit.

Armin stood there by the now vacant computer for a moment, processing what had just happened. He learned what this guy’s name was, discovered that he seemed to be a genuinely nice person, and helped him with a problem he had been having. And then promptly insulted his intelligence and most likely destroyed whatever chance he had at forming a friendship.

_Real great, Armin. Way to go. You’re making great progress at not having college life turn out like the hell high school had been_ , he bitterly thought.

He left the library and headed back to his dorm room, silently cursing himself the entire way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, our poor, self-doubting Armin. He'll make it though, I promise.  
> Again, please let me know what you think!


	3. My Eyes on Your Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is, chapter three!  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwB-iVAfnMo for this chapter's musical choice  
> I hope you enjoy :D

The next morning did little to improve Armin’s mood. In fact, even the weather itself seemed to mirror his frame of mind. It was an overcast, gloomy day, as if the clouds hadn’t yet decided whether they would unleash a torrent of rain down upon the city below or continue to simply cast a pervasive shadow across everything beneath them.

He arrived at his chemistry class with plenty of time to spare, and sat in the same seat that he had taken on the first day. Not long after, Eren walked into the room and began to make his way down the steps to the row Armin was sitting in.

The two made eye contact; those green eyes of his as captivating as ever.

Eren made a sort of half smile, and just before he got to Armin’s row, he turned and sat in the row behind him.

Armin’s heart sank.

So he was offended by that remark from the night before in the library. He was just asking for some help, and after Armin had given it, he was insulted for it. How could Armin have let that happen? After trying so hard to make some good friends here?

By this time the professor had entered the classroom and began to get the lecture underway. They started to go over the basics of chemistry, learning about the makeup of atoms and molecules, but Armin hardly paid any attention to what was being said. For the first time in his life, he found that he couldn’t concentrate on a class that was being taught. His mind kept going over the situation from the night before. What could he have said differently? Could he still make this all up to Eren somehow? Should he give up and move on with his life? It wasn’t like they really had any sort of friendship anyway, they really didn’t know much about each other more than their names.

To say that this was frustrating would probably be the biggest understatement of history.

The class ended a little over an hour later, and Armin had made his decision. He had already packed his things, so as soon as the professor dismissed them for the week, he had gotten up and headed straight for the door. He didn’t so much as glance in Eren’s direction.

It was better this way. There’s no sense in fretting over something that would never be anyway.

Still, he couldn’t help but feel a not-so-small twinge of guilt for not at least acknowledging Eren as he left. He had been so nice at the library…

No. He would have just screwed something else up.

The next class of the day didn’t really go over well either. Although Armin was a bit more focused, he still found himself mentally wandering to thoughts of a certain brown-haired, green-eyed individual.

As he left this class, he saw that his phone had received a text. It was from Jean.

**Hey, wanna grab some lunch?**

**Sure** , Armin replied.

At least this was one relationship with someone that he hadn’t messed up yet.

**How about this pho place a few blocks over?** Jean texted back.

**Sounds good to me** , Armin agreed.

Honestly, he didn’t really feel like socializing with anyone right now, but at least it would take his mind off his failings at being a normal person.

He hoped.

A short time later, he found himself walking into a dimly lit café that smelled of all sorts of spices and herbs. It was a bit noisy since it was lunch time on a college campus. The cooks in the kitchen were all yelling to each other in their native language and preparing the many bowls of food for all the hungry patrons waiting there.

“Hey, Armin!” he heard a familiar voice call.

Jean seemed to have been waiting there for a bit and was waving him over.

“I had time to check out the menu, and this place looks great!” he told Armin.

Armin looked over the menu that was placed on the wall. The soup bowls looked pretty good, but he eventually settled on a cold noodle dish with pork and different vegetables called bun. They stood in line, and after a surprisingly short amount of time, received their food.

“I can’t believe we came to a pho place to try the pho, and you get… that,” Jean scoffed.

“Hey, I’ve never tried this either, so what’s your point?” Armin defended himself.

“Touché,” Jean conceded. “Well, it’s pretty noisy in here? You want to sit outside? It doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to rain today.”

Armin agreed, and the two exited the café and found a table outside to sit at and enjoy their lunch.

After a few minutes of sampling their respective dishes, Jean finally broke the silence, “So, how’s your week been? I haven’t really had a chance to ask you yet. You’re always in bed so early.”

Armin chuckled a little, “Yeah, just had a lot to process the past few days. It’s been… fine. Classes aren’t too bad.”

“A lot to process, but not bad? I wish I had your enthusiasm,” quipped Jean. “Mine aren’t too bad though either. I actually met a dude who is in two of my classes. Seems really chill.”

Armin smiled slightly and looked down at his half-eaten bowl of food. “Well, making new friends is always good.”

“Yeah!” Jean said happily. “I invited him here if you don’t mind.”

“No, not at all. The more the merrier, right?” Armin said still looking at his food.

“I thought so too,” Jean replied as he began shoveling the soup into his mouth again. “Have you made any new friends yet?”

Armin paused for a moment before saying a bit quietly, “No. I haven’t actually…”

Before Jean could inquire further, he noticed someone behind Armin and began waving his hands while trying not to spew pho all over the place.

“Hey Marco, over here!” he shouted, miraculously keeping all the contents in his mouth just where they were.

The person known as Marco made his way over to where Jean and Armin were sitting. He had brown hair that was neatly parted in the middle, and freckles across his face.

“Hey, how’s the food?” he asked as he pulled up a chair.

“Not bad! You’re not going to go in and grab some?” asked Jean.

“Nah, I actually just ate lunch with my roommate and one of his friends,” Marco explained. “When you texted me, we were just getting our food actually.”

“Ah, ok,” Jean said before immediately returning to his lunch that he evidently greatly enjoyed.

“Marco,” the new addition to the table said, turning to Armin and offering his hand.

“Armin,” replied the blonde as he shook the other male’s hand.

“A pleasure! Would you two mind if two more joined us? They were right behind me…” Marco said as he turned to look at the direction from which he came.

“Not at all! Like Armin said before you got here, the more the merrier,” Jean answered for the both of them without losing any concentration on his lunch.

“Perfect! In fact, here they are now,” Marco said, waving two more individuals over to the table.

Armin was pretty sure his heart stopped for at least a full second as he noticed who one of the two was.

It was Eren, and with him was a girl with dark hair and an expression on her face that seemed to have people keep their distance from her.

They came over to the table, and when Eren noticed Armin he also looked a bit surprised.

Marco began to introduce them, “Jean, Armin, this is Mikasa and-“

“Eren,” Armin absentmindedly interrupted him.

Jean and Marco looked over to Armin.

“Oh, you two know each other?” Marco asked.

Eren had walked over to Armin and answered, “Yeah, we have a chem class together. And he helped me with rearranging my schedule last night in the library.”

_And belittled his intelligence afterwards_ , Armin thought to himself.

Jean had actually stopped eating for the moment and began to ask Armin, “I thought you said you hadn’t-“

Armin didn’t allow him to finish and said to Eren, “I hope that class is as interesting as you hoped it to be!”

Eren chuckled a bit and put his right hand into his pocket, “Oh yeah, well, it’s tomorrow, remember?”

Oh yeah. Armin wanted to be anywhere but right where he was at that moment, and was trying his best not to go red. He looked down and busied himself with what was left of his lunch.

“Haha, oh right. I guess this week is already starting to get scrambled for me.”  

Mikasa finally spoke up, “We were actually on our way to our next class. Eren and I are both in the same building, so we figured we’d just come by to say hello and meet Marco’s friends.”

“My class still doesn’t start for another hour,” Jean said having returned to his almost empty bowl.

Armin began to stand up, “I think I’m going to head to my next class too.”

“But you haven’t finished your lunch?” Jean observed, looking at the rest of the noodles and beef Armin had leftover.

“You can have it, if you want,” Armin offered. “It was good. I’m just not all that hungry.”

As Jean began to help himself to yet even more food, Armin found himself standing right next to Eren. What were the odds that this is how what was supposed to be an innocuous lunch turned out to be?

“Hey, I…” Eren began, but then apparently thought better of it. “Never mind.”

“What’s up?” Armin asked.

Eren turned his head and tried to find something on the street to concentrate on, “Nah, it’s just that… I was going to ask if you wanted to walk with me and Mikasa. But I know you’re probably busy. And I know how annoying I can be…”

“No!” Armin said a bit louder than he intended. “I mean, no, you’re not annoying. If anyone here fits that bill, it’s definitely me. I’ll walk with you guys.”

All eyes were on them now, with eyebrows raised to varying degrees.

“Oh, well cool!” Eren said happily.

“Come on, Eren. I don’t want to be late,” Mikasa said to him.

“Alright, well nice to meet you, Jean!” Eren addressed the boy who had begun to make short work of Armin’s leftovers. 

“Yeah, same to both of you!” he said with a mouth full of noodles.

With that, Armin, Eren, and Mikasa left Jean and Marco behind and headed back towards the main campus. As they were walking, they passed by a group of men holding up signs. One was on a megaphone.

“SINNERS, BEWARE! TURN FROM YOUR HEATHENOUS WAYS AND EMBRACE THE LOVE OF JESUS BEFORE YOU BURN FOR ETERNITY IN A PIT OF HELLFIRE AND DAMNATION!”

The signs had things written on them like, idolaters, masturbators, fornicators, and one that Armin found to be quite humorous: yoga pants. At least he wasn’t all that big into yoga.

“Yeah, I’m sure this sort of tactic will get so many students to come and join their asinine flock of sheep,” Mikasa said, doing her best to ignore them.

“Is this a normal thing around here?” Eren asked.

“Every now and then they come out and stand on the street corner with their stupid signs and megaphones, but they aren’t allowed onto the campus itself,” she answered. “They’re a nuisance more than anything.”

Armin laughed. It was definitely an interesting city. Not anything like the quiet town where he had grown up.

As they continued to walk down the block, Armin had noticed how Eren and Mikasa chatted with each other. There was so much familiarity. The way they bantered, the way they looked at each other. If only Eren looked at him that way.

No. He and this girl are obviously very close. They were probably in a long-term relationship with how they behaved. Armin should have known better than to think he could ever…

Before long, the three had entered the main courtyard where the various entrances to different buildings were located.

Eren stopped by the fountain and said, “Hey Mikasa, I’ll see you later. I just wanted to ask Armin something.”

Mikasa turned her head, but not enough to look directly at the two. “Sure. Just make sure you get to your class on time.”

Eren laughed, “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry I will.”

Then it was just the two of them there.

Armin didn’t really know what to say. Well, he did, it was just that he couldn’t seem to form his sentences correctly. He wanted to apologize for the night before, and ask Eren why he even wanted to have Armin intrude upon his and Mikasa’s time together, and so much more.

Eren made the first move by saying, “Hey, I just wanted to apologize for last night. I know I left in a hurry, but it’s just that I have a habit of ruining my relationships with other people. I can be a bit… overzealous sometimes. At least that’s the word that I’ve heard pinned to me before.”

What.

Armin didn’t even have a chance to respond before Eren continued to ramble, “I was going to come sit next to you in class today, but then I felt like I’d just be annoying you. You always seem to be so concentrated on what the teacher is saying. At least from what I’ve seen so far. I always move so fast with people, and I want college to be different from my experiences in high school. I’ve never really had any friends. In fact, I don’t even know how Mikasa still puts up with me.”

WHAT.

“You’re not saying anything. Sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have bothered you,” he said very quickly. “I’ll leave you alone. Again, I’m sorry.”

He began to turn away and walk towards the same building Mikasa had gone into before Armin said, “Wait!”

He stopped, and for the first time since the café, looked Armin in his eyes.

“No, you’re not annoying! I was thinking pretty much everything you just said. Except it’s me who is the annoying one,” Armin told him.

“You’re overzealous and have your own Mikasa?” Eren asked.

“Yes! Well, no. Well, kinda. I mean, I don’t have a girlfriend, but I tend to ruin my relationships with others…” Armin trailed off as he noticed Eren had started to laugh. And the laugh just got louder and louder.

_What the hell is going on?_ Armin thought to himself. _Is this real life?_

Eren continued to laugh, but eventually got out, “You think Mikasa and I are dating? Dude, she’s like a sister to me. I’ve known her for years. We grew up together.”

Armin was at a loss for words once again. He really wasn’t used to being mistaken so often like this.

Eren started laughing again. “I can’t wait to tell her this. She will be hysterical.”

“Please don’t,” Armin asked him sincerely. “I don’t want to come off like the type who makes assumptions about other people.”

Eren’s laughter began to die down, “Alright, alright. Well hey, for what it’s worth, I never thought that you were acting annoying. How could I? You’re so quiet and polite. And helpful. I really do appreciate the assistance you gave me last night. I’m sure that class will be great. I’m awesome at Psychology.”

Now it was Armin’s turn to laugh a little. Just a little though. “I thought I had offended you with that comment I made though.”

“What comment?” Eren asked looking a bit confused.

“When I made it seem like that you would have trouble in that class too?” Armin said nervously.

Eren’s face lightened completely, “Ohhhh, that! No, that was pretty funny! It’s true, I usually do have a lot of trouble with my classes. Mikasa is constantly berating me for it. I had just gotten it into my head that I may have been coming off a bit strong.”

It seemed Armin was wrong about everything.

“I am good at Psyc though,” Eren said again. “We could maybe do a study group sometime?”

“Yeah, that sounds great!” Armin agreed. “And then we can both make wrong judgments about the other some more.”

Eren gazed at him, with just the faintest hint of a frown on his face.

_Are you kidding me?!_ Armin furiously thought to himself. _Did I just make another stupid comment like that-?_

Armin’s thought was interrupted by the sensation on his shoulder. It was soft and warm, and it made all the negative feelings and thoughts that had been plaguing him for the past day fall away like they had never been there at all. Like a rain on the mountainside, or a wind in the meadow.

It was Eren’s hand.

“You’re a funny guy, Armin,” he said to him, his voice low and full of purity. “I think you are a real, genuine human.”

Well. That was a new one.

Armin smiled, and it seemed time had slowed down to a point as to be barely noticeable. He wished he could stand right here and look into those green eyes forever. But it was not to be. The hand pulled away, and while Armin fought himself to not just reach out and grab it, the moment had passed.

“Well, gotta go,” Eren said. “If I’m late, Mikasa will have a stroke. And she always seems to find out when I’m not doing what I should. It was great talking with you! Catch you around?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” Armin said quietly.

Eren gave him one more smile before turning to go into the building where his class must have been.

Armin slowly began to walk towards the building at the other end of the courtyard where his respective class was held. A light rain had begun to fall, the clouds seeming to have made up their mind.

It didn’t bother him though. It could have been a torrential downpour, and he would have felt the same. Happy, relieved, and at peace.

The feeling of Eren’s hand on his shoulder lingered all throughout the afternoon, and he vowed that he would experience that sensation again.

He had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See, things are already starting to work out ;)  
> But it's just the beginning, and we have a long way to go yet.


	4. Time Together is Just Never Quite Enough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, we've got a bit of a long one today! I've been pretty busy the past few days, and unfortunately will be even busier the rest of this week as well. I'll try to write when I can, but it might be next week until I am able to post a finished chapter. In the meantime, I hope this will do for now. I've got tons of ideas of where to go from here, and can't wait to get it all typed up.   
> And here is the song chosen for today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usR7mMHUhlY

Armin attended his Thursday classes without any incident, although he couldn’t keep his mind off of Eren when he was in Psyc. He kept wondering how Eren was doing at that moment, since he was attending the class in another building at that same time. After he got out, he made a slight detour over to the building that Eren would have been in, but the class must have ended earlier for him. There was no one there, and no sign of Eren.

 He had only one class to attend on Friday, and it was his English class. After the class had been dismissed, he had the whole weekend open to him. He didn’t really take advantage of the Friday night, because the light rain that had started Wednesday afternoon had become much more fierce Thursday night and into Friday. Saturday was mostly the same, but by the evening, the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and a humid night air wafted down upon the city. What little homework he had been given had been completely finished the night before, so he accompanied Jean to the campus diner and spent the rest of the night playing video games on Jean’s Xbox One.

He had yet to run into Eren again though, much to his disappointment.

Around lunch on Sunday, he decided he would head to one of the parks that were near the university’s campus. He was planning to have a nice, enjoyable afternoon in the sun, and although the sky was clear and the sun shining brightly, the ground was waterlogged after all the rain and the air was extremely muggy. He was secretly hoping that Eren would have the same idea. He settled on a bench near a fountain and ended up spending most of his time on his phone. He really wished he had thought to trade numbers with Eren.

Although fate seemed to ordain that they would meet at that Vietnamese café a few days previous, it appeared to have its limits. After he had been there almost an hour, he gave up on his plan and headed back to the dorm.

When he got back, he saw that Jean was planted in front of the Xbox once again.

“Hey, want to play some more zombies?” he asked Armin.

“Nah,” Armin declined. “I think I’ve had about as much Call of Duty as I can take for one weekend. We played all day yesterday.”

“Well what else were we going to do with it raining like that,” Jean said a bit dejectedly as he turned his attention back to the TV.

“True. But I think I’m just going to do some reading for now,” Armin replied, heading to his room.

He closed the door behind him and fell onto his bed with an unceremonious thump.

He sighed deeply and then turned over onto his back. Sunlight streamed into the room though the spaces in the window blinds, and was casting streaks of light onto the floor and walls.

He really was intending to do some reading, but when he found himself lying on his bed, he couldn’t bring himself to get up. He wasn’t exactly tired, but all the motivation that had filled him earlier had seemingly evaporated while he was sitting in the sun at the park. He was ready to go out into the city and take full advantage of the day. But now, he felt both drained and a bit anxious at the same time. It was as if he was stuck in a sort of purgatory; there were plenty of things to go do, but he didn’t really know where to start. All dressed up with nowhere to go.

He eventually began to drift off into a state of semi-unconsciousness. Here his thoughts began to center around his first week of college. Overall, it was a great week. Everyone he had met seemed really cool. And his classes, while demanding in their own way, didn’t seem too bad.

And then his mind honed in on Eren. It started with his green eyes. The way they had looked into Armin’s so softly, but full of vitality. His brown hair, and the way his bangs brushed against his brow so delicately. His rounded face, tan skin, and athletic build.

His soft hand upon Armin’s shoulder.

Armin’s thoughts guided him back to that moment. But this time, he reached out and took hold of that hand. He pulled Eren closer to him, their faces mere centimeters apart. He closed his eyes and felt his lips begin to brush up against Eren’s warm and inviting mouth-

“YEAH!! THAT’S HOW WE DO IT!” came a shout from the other room, jolting Armin from his afternoon fantasy.

Jean must have won another round on COD.

“Marco, you are a beast!” came another shout of excitement.

_Well at least Jean has Marco to spend his day with_ , thought Armin as he sat up and dangled his legs over the side of the bed.

Wait. Marco said his roommate was coming with him to the café the other day. And that’s when Eren showed up.

MARCO IS EREN’S ROOMMATE AND HE’S PLAYING WITH JEAN RIGHT NOW.

Armin sprang from his bed and threw open his bedroom door. Jean didn’t seem to notice the dramatic entrance.

“Jean, are you playing with Marco right now?” Armin tried to ask as casually as possible.

Jean didn’t turn away from the game as he answered, “Yeah, how’d you know?”

This guy.

“Oh, uh, I just figured you were since you said yesterday that he’d be free to play today,” Armin replied, still trying to keep it inconspicuous.

“Ah, yeah!” Jean exclaimed, as concentrated on the game as ever. “Want to join us now?”

Armin shifted in place, but kept his cool demeanor as best he could, “I would, but I uhh… have to do some studying with Eren. Could you ask Marco if he’s around? Since, you know, they’re roommates and... they live together… and… yeah.”

_Why don’t you just come right out and say you can’t take your mind off him why don’t you_ , Armin’s thoughts berated him.

Jean, however, still seemed to take no notice. “Sure. Yo, Marco, is Eren there?”

Armin heard a voice over Jean’s headset, but couldn’t quite make out what was being said.

“Ah, ok,” Jean answered the voice. “He says he hasn’t seen Eren since Friday afternoon. He left to meet up with Mikasa somewhere.”

“Oh, alright,” Armin replied.

_So much for that_ , he thought as he turned to go back to his room. He wanted to lie back down, but now that he was up, he decided to actually do the reading that he had originally planned for. Before long he was back in his bed, and slept through a dreamless night.

The next morning dawned on the second week of the semester, and Armin arrived to his chemistry class and was greeted with a pleasant surprise.

Eren was already there, and he was seated right next to the spot that Armin had been sitting in for the past week.

As Armin sat down next to him, Eren turned to face him. He looked happy, but he had noticeable bags under his eyes.

“Hey!” he greeted Armin with enthusiasm. “Surprised to see that I got here even earlier than you?”

“Haha, a little,” Armin admitted. “How was your weekend?”

Eren leaned back into his chair and tilted his head back. “Eventful. I went to my first college party. Mikasa and some friends of hers threw one to celebrate the end of the first week of classes. I feel like they just used that as an excuse though. I’m pretty sure they do that sort of thing every weekend.”

“It took a lot of willpower to get here this early,” he said turning back to face Armin.

“Yeah, that does sound eventful,” Armin replied.

_At least he doesn’t seem to have any trouble ingraining himself into social scene here_ , Armin thought. _I’m sure I’d just end up making a fool of myself._

“How was your first weekend off?” Eren asked.

“Pretty boring, honestly,” Armin said. “Just did some reading. And played some video games with Jean.”

“Really? I think I’d have enjoyed that more,” said Eren. “Hey, next time something’s going on, I’ll let you know. What’s your number?”

Well that was easy. Armin had been trying to think of a way to casually get Eren’s number, but once again he was shown the simplicity of just asking a straightforward question.

Armin gave Eren his number, and the other boy programmed it into his phone.

“Cool!” he exclaimed happily. “I’ll text you so that you’ll have mine too.”

The professor had entered the room by this point, and class was soon underway. After it had ended, the two new friends exited the room and walked together down the hallway of the building that they were in.

“Man, this class may end up being harder than I thought…” Eren said with a sigh.

“Really?” Armin replied. “It doesn’t seem too bad. Just a lot of memorization.”

Eren laughed, “Haha, I wish I had your academic skills. Maybe we could study for this class together too sometime.”

“That’s fine, we can add it to our Psyc sessions!” Armin said happily. He was glad that he finally seemed to have found someone willing to study coursework with.

“Yeah, I suppose we could!” Eren agreed. “We can meet up this week and go over some things, if that’s cool with you?”

“Yeah, totally!” said Armin.

“Alright, I’ll let you know! Don’t be a stranger, my friend,” he said with a smile.

“Same to you,” Armin said, returning the smile.

They parted ways to head to their next classes. As Armin arrived to the next lecture hall, his phone buzzed from within his pocket. It was an unfamiliar number, but he guessed correctly who it was from.

**Hey, it’s Eren. Enjoy the rest of your day n_n**

Armin texted back, **Hi. Hope yours is a good one too :)**

The next few days passed in a bit of a blur. Armin did his best to stay concentrated on his coursework, but he found it increasingly difficult now that he and Eren had exchanged numbers. While the stressful thoughts that had permeated Armin’s mind the week before were virtually all gone, he found himself wanting to text or call Eren for just about everything. The crazy preachers in the street who seemed to appear once a week, a cheap but really nice café tucked off into a hidden alley nearby, random amusing occurrences that happened in a class. All of these things found Armin wanting to share them with his new friend. And Eren seemed more than happy to oblige. Still, Armin did his best to not seem overbearing.

As they attended their Wednesday session of their chemistry class, they had decided to meet up on Friday and hang out for a while. As Friday morning dawned, Armin was incredibly excited to finally spend more than just an hour and a half with Eren. Although he did remarkably well staying focused in his English class, the concentration only lasted for the first half. When the class was instructed to read over and begin critiquing an essay, he began to zone out. He defended this with the fact that he always did plenty of reading over the weekends, and knew that he could catch up easily. Before long, class was dismissed and he now had the weekend open to him.

Armin headed for one of the larger parks a couple of blocks from campus where he and Eren had agreed to meet. The sun was out and there wasn’t a single cloud in the clear blue sky. It was pretty warm, but not humid like the week before.

As Armin walked along one of the paved sidewalks that wound their way through the park, he pulled out his phone and was about to call Eren. Just then, he heard a voice call his name. He looked around, but didn’t see anyone.

“Look up!” the voice called out again.

Armin heeded the command, and that’s when he saw a figure sitting on a large branch in one of the trees that line the sidewalk. It was Eren. He was about halfway up the tree with his legs dangling casually over the side of the branch.

“Care to join me?” he asked with a somewhat goofy grin on his face.

“And how am I supposed to get up there?” Armin asked returning the smile.

Eren slightly shook his head, but didn’t lose the grin he had, “By climbing, duh.”

Armin walked over to the base of the tree and looked up, “I’m not a very good climber though…”

“Just grab onto one of the lower branches and pull yourself up! Simple,” Eren said confidently. “Then just use your feet to balance and keep climbing.”

Armin frowned and slowly started to follow these “simple” instructions. He was a bit shaky as his feet left the solid ground below.

“I’ll help you up the rest of the way if you need me to,” Eren offered.

“Yeah, that might be necessary…” Armin said a bit strained. He really wasn’t the type to go climbing random trees.

As he reached the second branch, he was now near enough to Eren for him to reach out a hand and help pull Armin up to the one he was perched on. After a few moments of maneuvering his body so that he wouldn’t slip and fall, Armin miraculously made it up to sit next to Eren.

“See! I knew you could do it,” Eren said beaming at Armin.

“Yeah… Simple,” Armin said a bit breathlessly.

Eren laughed and leaned back onto the tree branch, completely at ease at being almost 20 feet off the ground. The leaves blocked out most of the view of the park, seemingly cloaking them in their own private retreat. It was much cooler here in the shade, and even the noise from the surrounding city was mostly muffled.

“So, uhh… come here often?” Armin asked Eren as he got more comfortable with where he was sitting. He still didn’t have the confidence to lie down on the branch like Eren did though.

Eren laughed again, “Actually, this is my first time in this particular tree. But I used to climb trees with Mikasa all the time back home. Along the river that was near our neighborhood.”

“I’ve only been in a tree maybe once or twice. Definitely never this high up. And I fell out of the last one…” Armin said, remembering the time he plummeted to the ground at 10 years old. His grandfather took him to the hospital, but luckily, nothing had been broken.

“Well, I’ll catch you before that happens, don’t worry,” Eren said somewhat casually.

Armin looked over at him. The way he was so calm and at peace. His eyes were closed now, and his chest moved up and down with each breath he took. Armin wished he could just sit right here and gaze upon Eren’s resting form forever.

Eren sighed, “It really is a beautiful day.”

“Yeah, we need it after last week,” Armin agreed.

“Mhm,” Eren responded wordlessly. “So, still want to study for Psyc?”

“Sure,” answered Armin. “I have my book with me in my bag.”

He pulled out his psychology textbook, concentrating on not losing his balance while doing so, and opened up to the chapter the class had been assigned to read over the weekend. They began to go over the basics, and after a while Armin began to quiz Eren.

“This branch of Psychology deals with studying the mind and thought processes for individuals,” he said in the form of a Jeopardy style question.

“What is Behavioral Psychology?” replied Eren.

“Not quite… It’s Cognitive Psychology,” Armin corrected him.

“Damn, that’s the fourth one I’ve missed,” Eren said sitting up with a frown. “I guess I’m a bit rusty.”

“It’s alright!” Armin tried to encourage him. “Isn’t this the point of the study session?”

Eren’s smile returned, “Yeah! But I feel like I might be at the end of my academic mindset for the week. Want to walk the park now?”

“Sure, that sounds good,” Armin said as he closed the book and returned it to his bag.

Now for the hard part. Getting into the tree was one thing, but getting down? Well, Armin knew that he’d get down, but he didn’t want to do it in a way that would end in his going to the ER.

“Here, I’ll hop down first,” Eren said as he began to make his descent.

He dropped down to the lower branch, and then swung below that and dropped to the ground. He made it look so simple…

“Ok, think you can do it?” he called up to Armin.

Armin had moved closer to the tree trunk and had one hand on it for balance. “Uh, maybe?”

“Don’t worry, I believe in you!” Eren said a bit too hopeful.

While Armin appreciated the confidence Eren seemed to have in him, he found that he didn’t really possess the same in himself. He gingerly lowered one leg down and attempted to slowly ease himself to the next branch. After about a full minute of sliding down the side of the tree trunk, he found himself firmly planted on the branch below.

“Ok, that works too, just keep steadily lowering yourself down!” Eren said from below.

_Maybe I can do this_ , Armin thought. He hadn’t fallen yet, and had actually gained a bit of confidence that he’d be able to make it safely to the ground below. He tried to mimic what Eren had done by swinging down and eventually dropping to the grass. The whole sliding against the tree trunk had scraped his arms somewhat already.

Then his foot slipped.

The next moment Armin experienced the extremely unpleasant situation of falling to the earth below him. Completely helpless to do anything to stop it, but still grasping out at the bark near him. As his arm scraped violently against the tree, he heard Eren’s voice below cry out, “Oh shit!” He shut his eyes tight, knowing that the next second was going to be extremely unfortunate.

And then he felt the impact. But it wasn’t as hard as he had been expecting. He opened his eyes and there in front of him were a pair of green ones, wide with worry and surprise.

They were Eren’s.

He had apparently moved to catch Armin, and was partly successful. Armin was lying on top of him, and both were breathing heavily.

“Told ya I’d catch you,” Eren said, a slight smile forming on his face.

“Thanks,” Armin said honestly. “And I think I managed to avoid breaking anything too.”

Eren quietly laughed and responded, “I knew you’d be able to get down without injury. And although the landing was lacking in grace or form, I’d still give it a solid 7.”

Armin was still staring into his eyes when he said without thinking, “I don’t know, considering where I ended up, I think I’d give the landing a perfect 10.”

_Did I really just say that?_ he immediately thought to himself.

Eren’s left eyebrow peaked, “You know, now I think you fell on purpose just to use that corny line.”

Armin laughed, and closed his eyes. The ends of his blonde hair were brushing up against Eren’s face, but the other boy didn’t complain. Armin could feel the warmth radiating from Eren’s chest, and although it was still pretty hot outside, it felt extremely comfortable.

After another moment, Eren finally said, “So… are we going to keep lying here in this position, or are you going to get off of me. I think we’re starting to draw attention.”

Armin snapped back to reality and opened his eyes. Sure enough, a small group of people had gathered about 30 feet away, probably to offer help as Armin came tumbling out of the tree. They now stood kind of awkwardly at a distance, not knowing whether to approach or not.

Armin pushed himself up away from Eren, and both stood up brushing the dirt and grass off their clothes.

“It’s fine, everyone! He’s a professional, don’t worry!” Eren called out. The group slowly began to walk away.

Armin found himself blushing and tried to hide it from Eren’s notice. He seemed to be successful, but Eren ended up noticing something else.

“At least I think it’s fine. Armin, check out your arm.”

Armin glanced down at his left arm, and noticed that it was bleeding. Not a lot, but enough to warrant a rag or small towel to clean it off.

“I guess I didn’t come out of that completely unscathed…” he said.

“Yeah, and neither did my shirt apparently,” Eren said looking down at his blue and white v-neck that was now stained with red streaks of Armin’s blood.

“Damn, I’m sorry!” Armin apologized. “I’ll buy you a new one.”

“Haha, don’t worry about it,” Eren said waving a hand out. “I might look like I’m really good at climbing trees, but it’s only because I’ve practiced so much. And I’ve ruined many a shirt with my own injuries too.”

Armin wasn’t entirely convinced, “Still… that looks like a nice shirt. And it was my fault this time.”

“Really, don’t worry about it!” Eren protested. “C’mon, let’s go get that arm cleaned up. The park will always be here. We can go back to my dorm.”

Armin finally relented, and picked up his bag lying on the ground. The two made their way through the city back to the dorms, attracting looks from various people along the way. Indeed, they must have looked a bit crazy.

Finally, they got to Eren’s dorm. It was on the other side of the Commons building from where Armin’s own dorm room was. As they walked inside, Marco was just heading out of the kitchen with a bowl of what looked to be ramen.

“Damn, what the hell happened to you two?” he asked, looking them both up and down.

Armin was about to explain when Eren said, “You won’t believe it! There we were sitting in the park when a ravenous horde of geese randomly attacked us! Armin fought them off with his psychology book, and if it wasn’t for him, I’m pretty sure I would have been mauled to death. These city geese aren’t like your average geese. They are relentless and bloodthirsty. One still got a good hit on Armin’s arm there. I’m lucky to be alive, honestly.”

Marco just stood there looking like he took Eren’s first sentence to heart, but simply said, “Carry on,” before heading to his room.

Armin looked over at Eren with an expression of utter bewilderment.

What in the world was all that.

“I want that moment to stay only between us,” Eren said with what seemed to be his signature grin.

They went into Eren’s bathroom, and Armin sat on the edge of the tub.

“Here, I actually have a first-aid kit,” Eren said as he opened up the small box and removed some gauze and antibiotic ointment. “Mikasa got it for me because I usually am the one in need of it.”

He wet the gauze with some water from the sink faucet, and began to slowly wipe the now semi-dried blood off of Armin’s arm. It stung a little, but Eren moved slowly and delicately. Soon, the wound was clean and he began to apply the ointment over the cuts and scrapes.

“You’re pretty good at this,” Armin said. “Maybe you should be a doctor.”

Eren laughed, but didn’t smile, “Nah. My dad is a doctor actually. It seems like it’s a rewarding career, at least financially, but I could never do it. I never saw him much growing up. And it just doesn’t seem like the life for me.”

“Maybe a nurse then?” Armin offered.

Eren looked up this time.

“I also don’t want to be thrown up on and wiping people’s asses all day either.”

Armin frowned, “There’s more to it than that, you know…”

“True. Maybe an EMT then. Or a physical therapist?” Eren pondered. “Honestly, I have no idea what I want to do. I probably never will.”

“I feel that you could end up being whatever you want to be,” Armin said encouragingly. “You definitely seem to have the drive to.”

Eren finished tending to Armin’s arm and looked into his eyes, “Thanks. What do you want to do once you graduate?”

The two stood up and began to walk towards Eren’s room.

“I’m not exactly sure. Maybe be a professor? I wouldn’t mind teaching,” Armin said.

“I could see that,” Eren replied. “I think you’d be great at that actually. You’re really smart.”

Armin smiled, “Well thanks. I used to get made fun of for that all the time by kids in my high school.”

Eren’s expression immediately darkened, “Really? Well fuck them. What do they know? I’ve never understood why others would make fun of someone for being good at something. Especially something as important as being intelligent. I bet they’ll never amount to anything important in their lives.”

Armin was a bit taken aback by this slight outburst. No one had ever defended him like that. And even though he and Eren were rapidly becoming close friends, they still only had known each other for about a week and a half.

It felt nice though.

The two entered Eren’s room, which was rather untidy compared to Armin’s. There were clothes strung about the floor, and the desk was cluttered with boxes, books, and other random items. Eren’s laptop sat opened and powered on. His bed had more clothes upon it, and the walls already had some posters hung up of various bands and anime shows.

“Sorry for the mess, I wasn’t expecting to come back here with company today,” he said a bit sheepishly with his hand behind his head.

“It’s alright,” Armin said still looking around. “I don’t mind.”

Eren laughed a bit nervously and then cleared a spot from his bed for Armin to sit. He took his shirt that was stained with Armin’s blood off and grabbed one that was on the back of his chair.

Armin couldn’t help but stare at his bare torso. It was very toned, and a 6 pack was easily discernible. It was as tan as the rest of his body and completely smooth. Armin found he couldn’t help but feel a bit flushed at watching him change.

Armin looked away and tried to concentrate on one of the posters on the wall as Eren finished putting on the new shirt.

“You should see my room back home,” came Eren’s voice. “There’s one wall that’s completely covered from tip to tip in different posters.”

“I used to have different awards framed on mine, but I took them down after a while because I… wanted to do something similar to this…” Armin trailed off.

He actually took them down because he didn’t want to be shown all the reasons he was so picked on at school every day. Not wanting to prompt another outburst, he couldn’t bring himself to say this to Eren.

“Yeah, I try to collect as many as I can find. Maybe we can compare some day?” Eren asked.

“Haha, maybe…” Armin said quietly.

Eren sat on his bed next to Armin. “Hey, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for today. You getting hurt was the last thing I wanted.”

“Oh, no it’s ok!” Armin tried to reassure him. “It was my fault. If it wasn’t for you, it would have been much worse.”

Eren still continued to frown, “No, I always expect others to be just as into things as I am. And I forget that they can’t always do the same stuff. I told you; I’m overzealous.”

Armin laughed a bit, “Hey, you said you’d catch me, and you did.”

This finally gained a smile from Eren. And another look from his eyes that slowed time down to a crawl.

“Well, next time, I promise we’ll do a lot more studying and a lot less falling out of trees,” Eren vowed with a contagious grin.

“Deal,” Armin agreed.

Eren stood up and walked over to his laptop. “Want to check out some bands I’ve been listening to lately? I’ve been wanting to share them with someone, and Mikasa only listens to the same crap she’s listened to since like middle school.”

“What about Marco?” asked Armin.

“He’s always playing video games. I mean, they’re fun, but I like to just chill sometimes, ya know?” Eren said as he began playing some music from his computer. It was upbeat and catchy, but not anything Armin had heard before.

“I know exactly what you mean…” Armin said.

The two sat and listened to Eren’s playlist for several hours, talking all the while about their past. Surprisingly, Armin learned that Eren too struggled with relationships with other people, and never really had much luck in romance either. It seemed the only real friend he ever had was Mikasa. They had known each other since they were very young, and their families were quite close. He grew up in a suburban neighborhood and always seemed to get into trouble with the kids in his town and at school. He never backed down from a fight, and usually this led to his being beaten quite bad sometimes. He loved to go out into the woods with Mikasa, but she graduated high school a year before he did. He ended up following her to the same university, and here he was.

Armin, by contrast, lived in a rural house with his grandfather. His parents were killed in a car accident when he was little. Not really having any other children to play with, he read constantly. In school, he never tried to get into fights with anyone, but was bullied nonetheless. He would walk around his grandfather’s property every now and then, but mostly stayed inside with his books where he knew it was safe. It seemed like he would go to one of the smaller colleges where he lived once he graduated, but he opted instead to do something different and head to the university in the middle of the state’s largest city. A choice he was now extremely grateful to have made.

As night fell, he knew it was time to head back to his own dorm.

“Yeah, I don’t want to keep you,” Eren said. “I know you’re probably starved. I am. And right now, all me and Marco have is some ramen, bread, and peanut butter…”

“It’s actually not much better at mine and Jean’s place,” Armin admitted. “I think I’m more tired than anything. It’s been a long day.”

“Yeah. But these two weeks flew by!” Eren exclaimed.

As Eren walked Armin to the door leading out into the dorm building’s hallway he said, “I had a really fun time with you today. Despite what happened to your arm.”

“Yeah,“ Armin laughed, “those geese sure were villainous.”

Eren laughed loudly, “Haha! They were, weren’t they?”

“I’ll text you tomorrow and maybe we could find something else fun to do?” Armin asked.

Eren smiled, “I’d like that.”

Armin returned the smile and nodded.

“Good night,” he said as he began to walk down the hallway.

“Same to you, my friend,” Eren said as he closed the door.

As Armin made his way back to his dorm, he began to feel the sensation that his body was growing colder. It was as if the whole time he was with Eren, he was warm and giddy. And now that they were apart, he felt a bit down and unfulfilled. At least they would have a full day together tomorrow.

When he got back to his dorm room, Jean had already gone off to his room. Armin heated up a simple bowl of ramen and went into his room. He turned on his desktop computer and searched for some of the music he had been listening to with Eren. The familiar melodies seemed to help put him at ease, although he wished he could listen to them with Eren still.

He thought to himself, _For a day that saw me fall out of a tree and scrape my arm to hell, I think I’ll consider this one a success._

As he lied down to go to sleep, he realized that he had fallen in more than just one way that afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it n_n


	5. Tell Me What You Know About Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here is the next chapter! And also a nice cover song to accompany it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqIFZFwMClE  
> I've also changed the rating for the story. Things are starting to heat up a bit, and it will only go from here ;)

Just as they had planned, Armin and Eren spent virtually the entire weekend together. From morning to night, they alternated between hanging out in Eren’s dorm, heading over to Armin’s, going to the campus diner, and simply walking the busy streets of the city.

Eren was amazed at how clean and orderly Armin kept his dorm room. Armin had explained to him that it wasn’t that hard as long as one cleaned any untidiness that is bound to crop up right away. Eren then explained to Armin that for him personally, it was simply a lost cause.

This manner of doing things seemed to work pretty well for the two. The time in Armin’s room was devoted to studying for their classes, and while for Armin it was mostly just review, Eren needed a bit of assistance more often than not. It wasn’t that he was unintelligent; on the contrary, he knew a surprising number of things about the world and could easily hold a conversation with Armin and could keep up with his quick pace. He was just easily distracted and grew disinterested with anything that didn’t seem like it would be beneficial to him later in life. While the two were in Eren’s room, they listened to all kinds of music and simply enjoyed each other’s company. This time it was Eren showing Armin all the ropes as far as good bands go. The two were even persuaded to play video games with Jean and Marco from time to time.

The next week of classes went more or less like the one that preceded it. However, a few of the classes were to take their first exam the following week, and Eren and Armin’s respective Psychology classes were one of them. That Wednesday in Chemistry, they began to formulate their plan of action.

“Ok, so I think if we just continue like we have been for the most part, we should be alright,” Armin said. “Although we might have to cut our musical hangout sessions down a bit… Just to be safe.”

“Aww, but I love those!” Eren protested.

“I mean, so do I!” Armin continued. “But I want to make sure that we ace this test. I know we can do it.”

Eren sighed, “You’re right. But I’m sure you’ll ace the exam no matter what. You just have me to deal with is all.”

“But you’re great at Psyc, remember?” Armin reminded him.

“Oh yeah,” Eren said busying himself with his notebook.

“Anyway, we still have a whole week to prepare, including this weekend. We got this,” Armin added encouragingly.

Eren smiled, but then suddenly sat up straight and turned to face Armin with a bit of an alarmed look on his face.

“Shit, I forgot!” he almost yelled.

Armin gestured for him to keep it down, as the professor had looked their way. The class was supposed to be busy solving chemical equations.

“Forgot what?” Armin said in a whisper, trying to get Eren to do the same.

“This weekend,” Eren said, much quieter this time. “I said I’d go to another of Mikasa’s parties. With her friends. I was going to invite you. So… want to come?”

Armin frowned, “Eren… this isn’t exactly the best weekend for all of that… Maybe the next weekend, after the exam…”

“I know!” Eren began, loudly again, but with another look from Armin he quieted back down. “I mean, I know… It’s just that Mikasa had said there won’t be many more parties going on until later in the semester. And I… kinda promised her that I would go. And I don’t want to go without you.”

Eren certainly wasn’t making it easy.

Armin still frowned, but didn’t say anything.

“It’s just Friday night! After that, I promise we can study. No musical interruptions either!”

Armin thought it over and finally relented, “Alright, fine. I suppose if it’s just the one night, we should be ok. And don’t worry, we can still work in some jam sessions too,” he added with a smile.

Eren was elated. “Yes! And don’t worry, it’ll be fun! The people who were at the last one were all pretty cool.”

A cough from the professor subtly let them know that their social time was up, and the two went back to their work.

As fast as ever, Friday arrived and so too the day of the party. After Armin left his English class, he headed back to his dorm to shower and change clothes. He and Eren planned to meet up a couple hours before they were to go to Mikasa’s dorm room and grab something to eat. He met Eren at the front of the Commons, and the two decided they would head to the pizza place nearby.

They chose a table outside that was in the shade of one of the trees that lined the sidewalk. It was a busy Friday, with pedestrians and cars bustling every which way. There were a few white clouds in the sky, but the temperature was warm and pleasant. Eren seemed completely relaxed, and enjoyed his half of the pizza he was splitting with Armin while he faced out towards the street and people.  

Armin slowly took a few bites from his slice, but seemed a bit disconcerted. He’d never been to a college party before. He’d actually never even been to a party at all, and the thought of going to one made him a little uncomfortable. There would be a lot of people there that he didn’t know. He’d only really hung out with Eren the past few weeks, and they were always more or less by themselves. Sure, they talked in class and played a random video game with Jean and Marco, but other than that, they always did their own thing. And that was the way Armin liked it. He enjoyed having Eren to himself.

“We’ll have to get snuck in, of course,” Eren said as he finished his second slice of pizza.

Armin regained his concentration and confusedly looked over to Eren, “What?”

“To the party,” Eren replied nonchalantly. “Each roommate is allowed one guest to themselves, and Mikasa has only one roommate. So that means only two guests are allowed at a time. Don’t worry though; they’re pretty good at smuggling bodies in.”

Armin looked a bit unsure, “This sounds like it could go bad… Even if we all get in, what about the noise? Won’t someone say something, or inform the RA?”

Eren smiled and picked up another piece of pizza, “Hey, don’t worry about it! It went over fine last time. And we keep the volume down pretty low. Besides, the Resident Assistant on that floor is actually friends with Mikasa. She’ll probably even show up herself.” 

“I just hope I don’t end up sitting around awkwardly. I don’t usually do all that well with groups of people I don’t know…” Armin said, trailing off.

Eren leaned in closer to him and said sincerely, “You will be fine. I think you might even surprise yourself! They’re pretty cool. And if you do feel awkward, just stick with me. We don’t have to stay all night.”

This helped to alleviate some of Armin’s concerns. It’s true, as long as he was near Eren, everything should be fine, right?

They both finished up their afternoon lunch, and then made their way over to Eren’s dorm. It was closer to Mikasa’s, and they simply passed the time doing what they usually did: listening to music and talking between themselves.

“Oh yeah,” Eren said, as they were about to head over to the party. “I told Marco earlier that he should come too. And I assume he’s brining Jean. That’s a couple more people that you’ll know who will be there!”

“Do you think they’re already there?”Armin asked. “I haven’t seen them this afternoon.”

“Probably getting something to eat knowing those two,” Eren said as he and Armin walked out of the dorm room.

They made their way out into the central courtyard, and headed to the adjacent building. The sun had set, and although it was still warm, the barest hints of cool weather could be felt. It would only be another week or so until autumn began, but for now it was still a summer night.

They entered the building and went up to the floor that would lead them to Mikasa’s dorm. There they heard someone call Eren’s name. When they turned around, it was a young woman who had brown hair that was tied back, but still a bit messy. She had brown eyes that were wide with a friendly aura behind her thick glasses.

“Hi!” she beamed at Eren. “Good to see you again? Heading to Mikasa’s tonight? And I see you even brought a friend this time! My name is Hange. Hange Zoë. The RA for this floor.”   

Armin shook her outstretched hand, “Armin Arlert.”

“Yeah, actually we are,” Eren answered after the other two finished their introductions. “Is it… safe to head over there now?”

Hange frowned, “You know sneaking in to people’s dorms is against the rules…”

Eren began to shift uncomfortably, and seemed to offer an explanation but was interrupted.

“But sometimes you need to set the rules aside and enjoy yourselves!” she said laughing. “In fact, Mikasa has a bottle of vodka for me with my name on it that is waiting for me right now. Come on!”

The two followed the rather scatterbrained RA to Mikasa’s room. There was the faint sound of music, and the bass seemed to cause a mild tremor in the floor as they got to the door.

“Ok, let’s dive in!” Hange said enthusiastically as she opened the door.

Eren was very mistaken about the level of noise that would be present at the party that night. The three of them were greeted with a blast of music and there were already quite a few people there. Bottles of alcohol were set up neatly all over the kitchen counter, and smaller glasses were arranged in a row in front of them. Everyone was milling about and talking with each other, holding various cups filled with who knows what. A few two liter bottles of soda were further down the counter, and Mikasa was filling up her cup with one of them.

“Eren,” she said as she looked up from her cup, still pouring the soda and not spilling a single drop. “Here, I’ve already made one for you.”

She handed him another cup, full to the brim with what could have been mistaken as water.

Eren sniffed at it and grimaced, “Ugh, Mikasa, come on, you know I hate Bacardi…”

“Just drink it,” she commanded. “Don’t worry, I’ve got the better stuff tucked off for later.”

He frowned but took a large gulp anyway.

“Damn! Is there ANY chaser in this?” he said, almost choking.

For the first time Armin saw a slight smile cross Mikasa’s face. “There’s a bit. But I know what you can handle.”

Armin stood there not really knowing what to say or do. Honestly, his senses were a bit overwhelmed. There was so much noise. People talking, music playing. The smell from all the different liquors. He didn’t really know what to do.

“I see you brought your friend,” observed Mikasa after drinking whatever was in her cup. “Armin, right? Eren talks about you all the time.”

Again, for the first time, Armin saw Eren’s face grow a bit red. “Mikasa, chill…” he said.

She smiled again and offered Armin another cup of what he assumed was Bacardi. “Here, help yourself. There’s plenty to go around.”

Armin cautiously took the cup from her and put it to his lips. He had never tasted alcohol before. His grandfather didn’t drink, and he was never around anyone who would have given him any before. He took a rather delicate sip and tried his hardest not to make a face. It was extremely bitter, and the drink burned his throat. He could detect the barest hint of soda, but it was obviously a small amount compared to the alcohol.

“See,” Mikasa began, “he doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.”

“You like this stuff?” Eren asked with one eyebrow raised.

Armin, not wanting to seem ungrateful for the free drink, replied, “It’s not too bad…”

Eren sort of shrugged and continued downing his own drink.

Just then, a pair of older males walked over to them. One had jet black hair that was short and cropped a bit. His eyes made it seem like he was bored with everything going on around him. He was also rather short, even shorter than Armin. The other had shorter blonde hair that he wore parted and neat. He, by contrast, was much taller.

The shorter male said, “I see the freeloaders have already started to get comfortable.”

“Levi, this is my friend Eren. And his friend Armin,” Mikasa said gesturing to the two of them.

“I didn’t know there was a cover charge for tonight, but if that’s the case, I can float you five bucks,” Eren said, and took another drink from his cup.

“Hmph. As if that would be of any use after all the money Erwin and I spent to get these drinks for all of you underaged kids,” the male named Levi said rather disapprovingly.

“Levi, stop messing with them,” the blonde male apparently named Erwin said. “You know we didn’t have to buy all this stuff. And by the end of tonight, it’ll be me and you as the last ones standing anyway. Like always.”

Levi looked unconvinced. Actually, he looked like he had before, with the same bored look on his face.

“They’re my personal guests, so they can have as much as I have,” Mikasa defended them. “This isn’t a club.”

“Fair enough,” said Levi. “Well in that case, do you two want to play a game of liquor pong? Against myself and Erwin, of course.”

“You’re on!” Eren said, agreeing for both himself and Armin. “Armin here is actually a pro at pong.”

Armin had no idea what he was being drawn into. But if he was with Eren, it should be alright. Hopefully.

“Is that so?” Levi said, looking Armin up and down. “Well, then it should be a good game.”

He and Erwin walked over to a table and began to set up a pack of red solo cups in a triangular formation.

Mikasa shook her head and went back to tending her makeshift bar. Hange had gone over to her, and the two began talking as Mikasa pulled out a bottle of vodka for her friend.

“Eren,” Armin said pulling Eren to the side. “What in the world is liquor pong?”

Eren laughed a little as he took another drink and answered, “It’s like beer pong. Same rules, just with liquor. These guys go a bit hard.”  

Armin nodded, and then asked, “So what’s beer pong then?”

Eren looked at Armin and inhaled deeply, “Well… I forget that you might not be as knowledgeable about this sort of stuff. It’s a game where two teams of two people each take turns tossing a ping pong ball into the other team’s cups. If you make one, the other team has to drink what’s in that cup. The first team to be out of cups loses. There are a few more specific rules, but that’s the main gist of it. Simple, right?”

Armin followed Eren to the table as he began to set up their cups and fill them with a light blue liquid called Hpnotiq. “Yeah… simple.”

After a few moments, the game began. Levi and Erwin went first, with Levi scoring the first shot. Eren took the first drink, and it was then his and Armin’s turn. Eren scored the next cup, but Armin missed. This more or less continued with both teams using one of their two “re-racks”. The Hpnotiq tasted much better than the Bacardi, but Armin began to feel his fingertips tingle.

“So are you going to continue carrying your team, or is your friend going to actually score? I thought you said he was a pro…” Levi said disinterestedly.

Armin began to feel a sense of intense irritation build within him, and his cheeks flushed.

“I’ll start scoring when you drop the act like you’re better than everyone else here,” he fired back, surprising even himself. He threw the ball and it landed cleanly in the center cup across the table.

“See? You aren’t shit,” Armin spat and took a drink of Hpnotiq straight from the bottle.

Levi and Erwin were silent. In fact, if it was possible, a faint expression of amusement actually crossed Levi’s otherwise stoic face, and he took the cup off the table and downed it. Armin glanced to his left. Eren stood there, eyes wide, and his mouth was slightly ajar.

“Armin… that was-“ he began.

Armin interrupted him, “Alright, let’s play.”

Eren slowly turned to focus on the cups he was aiming at and said, “That was awesome. But you know you don’t have to drink if you make it, right?”

“I was just thirsty,” Armin shrugged. This night was definitely getting interesting, that was for sure.

From here on, Armin made several more cups, and soon both sides had two cups between them.

“I’ll hand it to you,” Levi said. “You two are definitely better than I originally thought. You really put a dent in that bottle.”

Both Armin and Eren looked over to the Hpnotiq bottle, which only had a small amount of blue liquid left inside it. And that’s when Levi and Erwin made their move. They both bounced their respective ping pong balls across the table. Erwin’s made it into one of the cups, but Levi’s missed.

“That counts as two! That’s game,” Erwin said victoriously.

“Hey, no fair!” Eren cried out. “You distracted us on purpose!”

“And it worked, didn’t it?” Levi said with a very faint smirk. “It counts.”

“We still have another shot, right?” asked Armin. “A… redemption shot?”

“Yeah! So it’s not over yet!” Eren exclaimed.

Eren shot first, but missed. As Armin lined up his shot, he knew he just had to make one cup, and the game would continue as normal. He breathed slowly and closed his eyes. He really wanted to make it. Eren seemed to have so much faith in him. And if it put Levi in his place, then all the better.

Armin threw the ball and it sailed right at one of the two remaining cups on the other side of the table. It hit the edge of one, bounced, and then rolled tragically off and onto the table and then the floor. The game was over. They lost.

“Damn!” Armin cursed.

“Ha! And that’s that,” Erwin said, turning to Levi as he put a hand on his shoulder in triumph.

 Levi brought their two cups over to Armin and Eren. Since they lost, they had to split all the remaining drinks on the table.

“Good game,” Levi said surprisingly. “We’ve been doing this for a few years now, and you two did pretty well.”

“Even if it’s your friend’s first time,” he added quietly, and walked off.

Eren and Armin looked at each other.

“Well, I guess there’s no fooling him,” Eren said as he combined two cups into one and then did the same for Armin. “I don’t know if I dislike him or kinda admire him…”

As Armin began to down his cup, he felt an unfamiliar sensation pull at him. When Eren said those last words… was it jealously he felt?

“Hey, you guys did pretty good!” came a voice from behind them.

Jean and Marco had evidently made it to the party.

“Well, we did well,” Armin corrected Jean. “And I don’t know, I wish we could have wiped the smirks off their faces…”

“WELL, it was still a good game,” said Jean.

By now, the dorm was pretty full of various people, and the music had taken a sort of techno and dubstep kind of turn. Hange had kicked a couple people out for trying to smoke cigarettes indoors, and they begrudgingly headed for the courtyard outside.

Armin’s head felt a bit light, but to his great surprise, he felt like he was having a great time. Just then, Mikasa called everyone over to the kitchen for a round of shots. Armin and Eren both filled their glasses with an apple flavored Bacardi drink. It was more palpable than what they had at the start of the night.

“Alright, I think everyone is pretty much here now,” Mikasa began her toast, holding her glass out. “Some of us have known each other for quite a while now, while others are new to the group. With that being said, I’d like to make this toast in honor of a new school year, new friends, and new beginnings. If you’re with us, raise your glasses; if you’re not, raise your standards.”

As everyone cheered and began to take their drinks, Armin looked over to Eren and saw that he too was looking back at him. They both smiled at each other and swallowed the somewhat fruity shots.

The music came back on, and the party recommenced. By now, there was a good amount of alcohol in everyone’s system and more and more people decided they should show off their dance moves. Or lack thereof in some cases.

A song came on that immediately grabbed Armin’s attention. It was definitely a song that one would probably come across at parties, so it was the appropriate setting for it. It centered around drinking, smoking, and just having a good time in general. But more than that, it was about trying to find happiness. It was also pretty catchy and upbeat, but at the same time had just the faintest hint of sadness in it too.

Armin’s desire to learn what the song’s title was was soon answered by Eren, “Pursuit of Happiness! I love Kid Cudi’s music. We’ll listen to some of his albums at the next study session!”

Armin was completely ok with that. It was probably at the top of his list now for favorite songs that he’d been hearing lately.

Just then, he felt a hand tug at his sleeve. It was Eren, and he was beckoning Armin to dance with him.

“Come on, let’s move around a little! Get the juices flowing.”

“Oh, the juices are definitely flowing,” Armin said, putting one hand to his forehead.

He had never felt these sensations before. Everything felt lighter, as if he was walking on air. The sound of the music and the people seemed to swirl around him. He was in his own bubble amidst a sea of churning waves.

Whenever he talked to Eren, the conversation, no matter how brief, was its own version of bliss. Even standing near to him evoked in Armin a feeling of pure contentment and peace. He was extremely grateful to have agreed to come with Eren to the party.

Everything felt right with the world.

He came back to reality as Eren continued to tug on his shirt, “C’mon!”

Armin acquiesced, and the two made their way over to the speakers that had been set up. The music playing now was an instrumental of some sort, with varying degrees of electronic melodies. Good sounds to move one’s body to.

As Armin tried his best to move in beat with the music, he found that as elegant Eren was at climbing trees, he lacked severely in rhythm. Whether this was due to the alcohol or not, Armin didn’t know. He began to laugh as he closed his eyes and simply danced. Every so often, he felt Eren close to him, and he treasured those moments more than anyone could ever know. The feeling of Eren’s hand upon him, mostly for balance, but soft and full of warmth nonetheless. It was all so surreal.

They continued on for what seemed like hours, but it had only been a relatively short while. More shots went around, as well as refills on their cups. They talked with various people, and everyone seemed so open and welcoming. Like they were genuinely happy to talk with Armin.

This was all so new to him, but he enjoyed every moment. Even his words seemed to come out more straightforward and naturally than what would otherwise have been the norm.

After a couple of hours, Armin really felt the dizziness begin to hit him. He sat down on the couch, but this just seemed to make the room spin around him more. Shutting his eyes made it so much worse. Instead, he began to try and focus on the conversation that Eren was having with Levi, Erwin, Mikasa, and Hange. They were the only people left now, and even the music seemed to have quieted down substantially. It was now more akin to the kind of times Armin would have with Eren in his room.

“But that’s what I’m saying!” came Eren’s voice, sounding forceful and argumentative. “No government should have the right to dictate everything an individual can and can’t do!”

“It reserves that right when it concerns other’s safety and own personal freedoms,” Levi’s low and still rather bored sounding voice replied. “The whole is more important than the parts.”

“But Levi, people aren’t simply ‘parts’,” Hange countered. “By imposing restrictions on one, the whole is weakened by it.”

“Hange, I expected a more logical and developed world-view from you, but I suppose I was overestimating you once again,” Levi retorted.

“Alright, maybe we should just call it a night here,” Mikasa said forcefully, stopping Eren from firing back as Erwin chuckled. “Levi, I told you, NO politics tonight. And yet, here we are ‘once again’.”

Levi simply scowled, but seemed to accept Mikasa’s command. “Sure, whatever. Let’s go Erwin. If we want to have an intellectual conversation, I guess this isn’t the place for it. I’m bored anyway.”

They both rose from their seats and headed for the door while Erwin told Mikasa that she could keep any leftover drinks. What was left of them anyway.   

“Yeah, and don’t let the door hit your bored, intellectual ass on the way out,” Eren called after them.

“Eren…” Mikasa sighed.

“I just hate those pompous types. Thinking they know everything, and everyone else is an idiot,” Eren said angrily.

“I guess you really despise me and my intellectuality then,” Armin said with his eyes half-closed.

At that, Eren’s demeanor completely changed. He almost looked hurt in a way. “Of course not! You don’t go around telling people what they should think. Everyone could take a page out of your book, honestly.”

Armin laughed and hiccupped at the same time, “I have plenty of those! But I better not catch any of you ripping out pages from my books.”

Mikasa rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide the small smirk she had on her face. Hange and Eren laughed rather drunkenly by contrast.

As Hange regained herself as best she could she stood up and said, “Well, I think I better go too. It’s getting late. My bottle of vodka and I thank you for another wonderful time, Mikasa!”

After Hange left with the remnants of her vodka, Mikasa turned to Eren and said, “You two can stay here tonight if you want. All I need is to get busted for underage drinking should both of you get caught on your ways back to your dorms.”

Eren scoffed, “And what are the choices besides sleeping on either the floor or the couch?”

Mikasa gave him a look that Armin never wanted to have directed at him.

“Krista wasn’t here tonight, if you didn’t notice through all of your liquor pong and dancing shenanigans. You two can sleep in her bed. I’ll wash her sheets before she gets back Sunday night, but still, try really hard not to throw up on them or anything else…”

This seemed to placate Eren enough to not warrant another complaint from him. As Mikasa cleaned up a bit before heading to her room, he and Armin talked some before turning the music off and heading for Krista’s room.

“So what did you think?” asked Eren as he fumbled around the room looking for the bed.

“I… had a really good time,” said Armin, trying not to fall over. The dizziness had not gone away. “I’m glad you thought to bring me.”

“Of course I’d think to bring you. You’re my best friend,” Eren replied as he finally found the bed in the dark.

Armin giggled a bit, “Ya know, it woulda been easier to just turn on the lights.”

“Bah, lights! Who needs lights?” came Eren’s voice in the darkness.

Armin sat at the edge of the bed. It wasn’t very big; the two of them could fit in it, but there wouldn’t be a whole lot of room. As Armin lied down and pulled the sheets over him, he finally felt just how exhausted he really was. He also noticed another thing. Eren had apparently taken his shirt off as he himself got comfortable. It began to dawn on Armin that he was actually going to sleep in the same bed with Eren. A shirtless Eren at that.

As these captivating thoughts crossed Armin’s mind, he heard Eren’s voice again, “I’m really glad you had a good time.”

Armin smiled, “So am I.”

Armin began to drift off to sleep, and he was visited by the same amazing fantasy that had enraptured him a couple of weeks before. He and Eren were staring into each other’s eyes. Eren’s hand rested in Armin’s palm, and the two of them softly intertwined their fingers. Armin’s free hand slid delicately through Eren’s soft, dark hair, while Eren’s descended to the small of Armin’s back and gently pulled him closer. Their lips were so tantalizingly close to each other, and Armin could feel Eren’s warm breath upon his cheek. And then, they both leaned in and closed their mouths around each other. It was slow and sensual at first. They kissed like this for quite some time, and then Armin leaned into it even more. Eren’s tongue gingerly explored Armin’s mouth, and Armin welcomed it. The two tongues danced around each other just as they had danced together earlier that night. Armin moaned quietly, and Eren did the same. Eren’s hands now went to Armin’s front and crept ever lower downwards.

Armin opened his eyes and discovered that this was not a dream at all. He and Eren were actually really kissing each other in the dark. Armin began to pull away, and Eren let out a slight whine, his hands immediately going to pull Armin back towards him. Armin didn’t completely resist, but he also didn’t want to ruin anything between them. They stopped kissing, and eventually settled for just stroking each other’s faces and chests. After a while, Eren seemed to have really fallen asleep, his hand resting in Armin’s blonde, silky hair.

As Armin began to drift off into unconsciousness, he felt a wave of pleasure wash over him. Eren’s warmth comforted him in a way he had never known before. It was definitely a night of firsts. Listening to Eren’s breathing, he fell into a blissful, deep sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright then, as you've read I'm sure you've noticed that Armin and Eren's relationship has started to really grow. Only time will tell as to where it eventually ends up. And again, thank you for all of the kind comments! I'm really, really happy that people seem to be enjoying this. I'm going to be even busier the next couple of weeks, but I will try to get chapters posted when I can.  
> Also, writing a drunk and kind of aggressive Armin was a really guilty pleasure of mine. I'm sure that some of us can find this situation a bit relateable too xD  
> Until next time!


	6. Counting the Steps to the Door of Your Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, I'm back! I finally found time today to write another chapter. This one mainly deals with the fallout from the previous chapter. I know last time things kind of took a wild turn from what had been happening before, but I wanted it to be a bit realistic. Things aren't always so prefect and nice, even though we may want them to be. I'm going to level with all of you now and say this: that sort of thing will be an underlying theme to this work. It may not be exactly what happened last time, but there will be some moments where the plot may get rather crazy and possibly a bit distressing. I will of course give warnings beforehand. Seeing this written makes it seem like it's worse than what it actually is, haha. I promise there's meaning to it and it won't be a common thing! This chapter is a bit shorter, but has a really nice payoff I think. This will be more of the norm, I promise. Well, not the shorter part, I intend to write longer chapters!  
> Ok, enough of my rambling. I hope you enjoy today's chapter, and here is the song I picked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2k3tj3XtV4

Armin awoke the next morning feeling especially groggy. Well, it wasn’t exactly morning because the clock on the bedside table read 1 PM. He looked over next to him and saw that Eren was still passed out. He looked so peaceful lying there. Only his head peaked out from beneath the blanket, and his nostrils slightly flared each time he took a breath.

Armin was trying to decide whether he should keep lying there, or go ahead and get up for the day. Eventually, he decided to leave the warm comfort of the bed. Krista’s bed, he remembered.

Then he began to remember the events from the previous night. How he had played drinking games with people he had never met before, took shots for the first time, acted in a way that was completely out of the ordinary for him. How he and Eren had gotten especially… close.

With that, he sat up and slid out from beneath the blanket and gingerly walked towards the door to head back to the kitchen area. He felt pretty dehydrated.

As he began to leave the room, Eren made a quiet noise, and turned over to his other side. He still seemed to be asleep though.

Armin walked into the kitchen and found that Mikasa was already sitting at a chair, a glass of water in one hand and a container of pills in the other. Her hair was pretty disheveled.

She looked up at him with an expression of exhaustion and slight pain on her face.

“You feel like shit too?” she asked in a throaty sort of tone.

“Not too bad. Just thirsty,” Armin replied as he attempted to find a clean glass.

Mikasa scoffed slightly, “I wish I still woke up like that. After a couple of years, your body always seems to be on the verge of death the next morning after a night like last night. Enjoy these sorts of mornings while they last.”

She took a couple of pills from the container and swallowed them with a gulp of water from her glass.

Armin finally found a clean looking glass, at least as clean as he was probably going to get, and filled it with water from the tap. He walked over to the empty chair beside Mikasa and sat down.

“If you end up needing any, just ask,” she said gesturing to the container of pills. “Extra Strength Tylenol helps to knock out just about any headache.”

“Thanks, I’ll let you know,” Armin said before taking a drink of water.

A sound came from the direction of Krista’s room, and Eren walked into the room where Mikasa and Armin sat talking. Now that he was awake, he looked much less peaceful. His hair wasn’t exactly messy, but he had the look of someone who had run a race of some sort. He had bags under his eyes and sort of slouched as he walked over to the two.

He also looked rather preoccupied with something.

“Feeling the aftereffects from last night too?” Mikasa asked him.

“You could say that,” he said as he collapsed onto the couch.

Armin suddenly began to feel very uncomfortable. The alcohol definitely played a part in what had happened between him and Eren after they went to bed, but that was no excuse. He had crossed a line for sure. Was Eren referring to that just now? Sure, they didn’t really do anything beyond just making out, but still. If their friendship was now ruined because of Armin’s feelings, he’d never forgive himself. And this is when it really began to dawn on him.

Armin was extremely attracted to Eren. Of course, he knew from pretty much day one that he felt something for Eren, but now there was definitely no denying it, no brushing it aside. He was head-over-heels for the boy.

Mikasa walked over to where Eren was slumped on the couch.

“Here, take a couple of Tylenol,” she said, handing Eren two pills and her glass of water.

He sat up and did as instructed.

“Let’s never drink that blue shit again,” he said after.

“Hey, that was all you two,” Mikasa said. “But yes, agreed.”

The three of them sat around for a while longer, collecting themselves, before Eren had the idea to grab some lunch.

“You two go ahead,” said Mikasa. “I need to clean this place up. And wash Krista’s sheets. I hope the both of you didn’t make a mess of them.”

“No, not at all!” Armin exclaimed.

Mikasa raised an eyebrow. “I was mostly joking. But, yeah…”

Eren just sat on the couch looking at the floor.

_He’s GOT to be uncomfortable with what happened_ , Armin thought. _I ruin everything. Every single time. I knew this wouldn’t last._

“Well, I’ll see you both later,” Mikasa said as she began to put away the remaining cups and bottles. “Thanks for coming. All in all, it was a fun night.”

Soon, Armin and Eren had left Mikasa’s dorm and headed outside to make their way down the block leading to the cafes. They eventually settled on a simple fried chicken place. Fried food seemed to be the best thing to have right now.

It wasn’t until they had sat at a table in the back that Armin realized they hadn’t said more than just a couple of words to each other the entire walk over. This was very unusual for Eren, who usually talked all the time during their walks.

He was definitely bothered by something. And what that something was, Armin could easily guess.

“So, thanks again for inviting me last night, “Armin said rather quietly. If he could get Eren to talk, maybe he could fix the situation.

“Yeah, don’t mention it,” Eren said without looking at him.

This only had the effect of making Armin’s mind race even more. What exactly did that mean? Did he mean it as in, ‘sure, no problem’? Or as in, ‘yeah, don’t talk about this again’?

A part of Armin just wanted to get up and leave right there. Just run away from everything. But he couldn’t. Not seeing Eren again would be even more painful than sitting in awkward silence.

He settled on asking another question.

“I know we’re both not feeling all that great, but we should study for the exam in Psyc, remember?”

This time, Eren looked up. “I actually feel a bit better now with some food in me. That’s fine, we can study.”

Ok. Progress.

Eren agreeing to still study with him made Armin feel a bit more relieved. Not much, but a bit.

After they had finished lunch, they made their way back to Armin’s dorm room. Jean was nowhere to be found, presumably either out getting lunch or recovering from the night before in his room.

Once inside Armin’s room, Armin began to pull his psychology book from his shelf while Eren sat in the computer chair. 

“Ok, we can look over the material that’s easiest first, then move on to the harder parts,” Armin said, outlining  a plan of action.

Eren nodded in agreement.

They took turns reciting definitions to key terms before Armin moved on to reading out review questions for Eren to answer. This is when Armin began to notice something peculiar.

Eren was getting each question wrong.

And not just a bit wrong, but completely incorrect. Almost as if he had no idea what he was being asked. And the material was only from the third chapter at this point.

After a few more questions, Armin finally decided to see if he could figure out exactly what was going on. He asked Eren a question that anyone halfway decent in Psychology could answer.

“Which side of the brain is the more logical and mathematical side, right or left?” Armin quizzed him.

Eren thought about it for a moment. “The… right?”

Something was off. No doubt about it.

“Is everything alright, Eren?” he asked a bit timidly.

“Yeah,” Eren replied looking like everything was absolutely not alright.

“Eren…” he began before launching into an uncontrollable rant. “I think your mind might not be on what we’re doing. And I think I know why. I’m so sorry about last night. I know there’s no excuse, but I thought I was dreaming, and there was so much alcohol, and I’ve never done anything like that… and I’m… I’m just sorry.”

He stopped as he felt the tightness in his throat grow, and a stinging sensation in his eyes.

Eren simply sat there and looked at him, with an expression on his face that looked almost like he was watching a train accident occur.

“No… I-“ he started to say before Armin interrupted him.

“We don’t have to study anymore. You can leave if you want, I won’t be offended,” Armin managed to get out, even though the constricting sensation in his throat grew stronger.

“I’m an idiot. And I ruin everything. I’m… sorry…” Armin trailed off as tears began to stream down his face.

He closed his eyes and turned away from Eren. This was at most the most embarrassing moment of his entire life, and there had been quite a few embarrassing moments. He had just made a complete fool of himself, and ruined the closest friendship he’d ever had. All because he couldn’t control his own emotions.

But then he felt something on his face, and it wasn’t the tears.

Eren had reached his hand out and gently pulled Armin’s face back around to look at him. His hand was so soft and so warm, full of tenderness and care.

His green eyes stared intently back into Armin’s eyes.

“Please stop. I should be the one apologizing. I just didn’t know of a way to say it. I thought you would never speak to me again after last night. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time something like that had happened to me. I’ve ended several friendships before because I thought I was closer to that person than what was actually true.”

Eren’s confession left Armin completely dumbstruck. The tears stopped, and he had to remind himself to breathe. Could Eren feel the same way about Armin that he felt for Eren?

“If you don’t want to hang out anymore, I completely understand. It’s best if we part ways now than drag this on after what happened last night after the party,” he continued, his hand still resting on Armin’s cheek.

“But I’m going to come right out and say it: I like you Armin. A lot. Like a lot a lot. I pretty much felt that way from the moment I saw you. And I hope you feel the same, but like I said, I’m used to it if it’s not the case.”

Armin’s eyes were wide with surprise. He sat there for a moment and didn’t say anything until Eren began to pull away with a look of disappointment on his face.

Armin reached up and grabbed a hold of Eren’s hand to keep it on his cheek, “No! I… like you too! I just never thought you felt the same! I just thought you were being friendly. Ever since the first day of classes. But even so, I’m still sorry about last night, I know it was probably too fast-“

Eren had cut Armin off as he leaned in and closed his lips around Armin’s still moving mouth. The kiss was much softer and more controlled than any that had taken place the night before. Armin was still a bit shocked, but soon melted into Eren’s grasp and returned the same soft kiss.

After a few seconds, the two pulled back from one another and Eren lowered his hand. Armin immediately missed its warmth.

“Sorry,” Eren whispered with his signature grin. “I’d told you not to apologize, but you started back up again.”    

Armin was about to give an apology, but caught himself. He simply laughed quietly instead.

“I don’t feel bad about last night, and you shouldn’t either,” Eren said. “Sure, it could have led to an unfortunate outcome, but it worked out alright didn’t it?”

“I guess so,” Armin said smiling. Still, he vowed not to repeat that sort of thing again. When Eren and he kissed again, he wanted the circumstances to be more like this where they both were in complete control of their actions.

“Also, I have another confession…” Eren said as he looked away and put his hand behind his head.

“Go ahead, you can tell me,” Armin said, wondering what it could be.

Eren looked visibly embarrassed, and his ears had turned red. “Well… there’s another reason that I’m not doing so well in this review… I, uh… kinda suck at Psychology to be honest.”

Armin sat there confused. “What do you mean? But you said-“

“I know!” Eren interjected. “I said I was great at it! But I’m not. I really, really blow at this subject…”

“I don’t understand; why take it then?” Armin asked, still confused.

Eren’s whole face had turned a shade of pink now. “Because that night in the library when you were helping me with my schedule… I really wanted to be in another class with you. And when we found that other opening, I didn’t want it to look obvious that that was what I had wanted.”

He had now looked away and down to the floor as both of his hands fidgeted in his lap. “I also didn’t want to look… dumb. I’m really bad at school. I’ve never really been all that great at any subject. Just average. I don’t even know how I got accepted with a GPA like mine…”

Now it was Armin’s turn to put Eren’s mind at ease.

He gently placed a hand on Eren’s knee and said, “Eren, you’re not dumb. Not everyone is great at academics, but that doesn’t make them any less intelligent. After the talks we’ve had, I know that you are a pretty smart guy.”

A smile began to form on Eren’s face as he looked back up to Armin. There were tears in his eyes, but not quite enough to fall. A good thing too, because if he started to cry then Armin would really be a wreck.

“I appreciate you. So much,” he said as he leaned toward Armin once more.

The two wrapped their arms around one another and kissed again, this time with a bit more passion. Everything felt so right to Armin. The warmth, the security, the sense of belonging. It was as if everything had led to this moment. All the doubts he had evaporated while he was locked in this intimate embrace with Eren. All of the unpleasant memories of his past no longer mattered. All the failed friendships no longer haunted his thoughts. He was with Eren, and Eren was with him. All was right with the world, and he was content.

A few moments later, they again pulled away from one another.

“So, wait a minute…” Armin began to ask, his arms still wrapped around Eren. “What you’re telling me is that all those times we studied, you were just winging it and hoping I wouldn’t notice?”

Eren again looked embarrassed and averted his gaze, “Uhh… I guess so, haha…”

Armin looked at him with an expression of mock disapproval, “Well, I guess that just means that studying for this test just became all the more important. Because I am going to make sure you pass!”

Eren turned to look back at Armin and pouted slightly, “But that will leave no time for making out or cuddling or any other fun stuff…”

Armin smiled, “How about this: for every question you get correct, I’ll reward you with a kiss.”

This brought a wide smile to Eren’s face.

“Deal,” he said as he and Armin pressed their lips together again.

“We don’t need to advertise anything to anyone either,” Eren said after another moment. “I get so tired of people poking their noses into my business as it is. And Mikasa is the worst, even though she means well.”

“That’s fine with me,” agreed Armin. “The less distractions the better.”

The two spent the majority of the day going over all the material for their upcoming exam and finding comfort in each other’s arms. By the end of the night, Eren had considerably improved at retaining the information from the different chapters, Armin’s proposal having obvious benefits. For the first time in either of their lives’, they had found a sense of solace that had until then been seemingly out of reach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, nice payoff, right?! Armin is FINALLY rid of those pesky self-doubting thoughts he's been having about him and Eren. The subsequent chapters will deal more with their interactions with others, but will also not neglect the times they have alone... if you know what I mean ;)  
> Things are going to only heat up for them more, and I may have to change the rating of this work even further. If that isn't exactly what you want to read, I will of course provide warnings for those parts. It will most likely get pretty explicit. I do hope that any who skip those sections will still enjoy the rest of the work as a whole.  
> But alright, short chapter, but there will be more! My schedule is still pretty busy, but I will try to at LEAST write one chapter a week. I hope you all enjoyed, and please let me know what you think so far! I take all comments to heart, and I'm interested in what you all have to say. Until next time n_n


	7. The Only Faith We Have Is Faith in Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this thinking it would be much longer than it turned out to be. But once I got to the bit at the end, I felt that it was a perfect place to end the chapter. I hope I'm forgiven for not typing up more, but I feel this chapter really starts to delve into Armin and Eren's newfound relationship. Enjoy! And here is the song for this one by one of my all-time favorite bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYwXCpEiqls

The next couple of days swirled by in a flurry of mostly intense study sessions that were interspersed with breaks of musical jamming out and cuddle moments. Finally, exam day arrived and Armin and Eren each went to their respective class to take their test.

When Armin arrived, the professor informed them that they would be heading to the computer lab nearby to join with the other Psyc class and take the exam. The results of the test would also be available immediately upon completion.

_At least there won’t be any waiting around to see how we did…_ , Armin thought to himself.

Once the class had made their way to the lab, Armin saw that Eren and the rest of the students from the other class were already there. There was an open seat next to Eren, and Armin promptly took it.

“Hey, fancy meeting you here,” Eren greeted Armin with a flirty smile.

“And what brings such a handsome fellow like you to a place like this?” Armin replied with an equally amorous grin.

“Oh, you know,” Eren said leaning back in his chair. “Just trying to see how absolutely inept I am in regards to intellectual prowess.”

_Oh, Eren…_

Armin’s grin turned into a frown as he looked at the boy he so desperately wanted to take into his arms and hug right now.

“Stop that. You’re going to do fine. We prepared so much for this, and you are way better than you were when we started.

“And also, that sentence was very well worded,” Armin added with a smile.

Eren smiled, but his eyes betrayed a feeling of despondence, “Just trying to sound more like you. But  yeah, I guess we’ll see.”

Both of the Psyc professors now addressed the class as they had all taken their seats.

“Alright everyone,” Armin’s professor said. “This exam is timed. You have exactly 50 minutes to complete it. There are only thirty questions, so you should be alright if you pace yourselves well.”

“And as was said earlier,” the other professor who taught Eren’s class continued, “your results will be shown as soon as you submit the test. Once you complete a question and hit the ‘next’ button on the screen, you cannot return to the previous question. So make your choices wisely.”

Armin wasn’t going to lie; even though he and Eren had studied hard for this, the situation was a bit more intimidating than he thought it would be.

Armin’s professor allowed a moment for everyone to mentally prepare themselves before saying, “You may all now begin. Good luck!”

And with that, the test had begun.

The first few questions were actually pretty easy. A few were almost word-for-word that some of the review questions from the book had been. Once Armin had gotten to about the halfway point though, the questions had begun to get much more tricky. They were laid out in a way that made it so that one had to think critically and apply the knowledge they had gained from reading and taking notes in class in order to come up with the answer.

After a while, Armin glanced towards Eren and noticed that he seemed to be struggling a bit. He had one hand on the mouse and another in which he was resting his head, his hair pushed back. He would alternate between furrowing his brow at a question and looking up to the window in front of them. It was a pretty nice view of the city. The downtown buildings rising up before them against a clear blue sky.   

After more time had passed, Armin reached the end of the test. He made his choice on the final question, and then hit submit. The system loaded for a bit, and then he was brought to a screen that showed his score.

93.

He considered this a success, and breathed a sigh of relief. As he rose from his seat, he made another glance at Eren who looked as if he was still having a bit of a hard time.

As much as Armin wanted to help him, he knew that he couldn’t and had to leave him behind and wait for him in the hallway outside of the room.

As Armin stood in the hallway, he noticed that he was the first person to finish. After a few minutes, more and more students filed out of the room. Most looked happy, while some looked a bit disappointed.

Pretty soon, there were only 5 more minutes remaining of time allowed for the exam. Armin hoped that Eren finished in time, and couldn’t help but start to get worried. Eren had indeed gotten much better at the subject, but he was easily discouraged when he noticed that he was beginning to mess up.

With just a minute and half to go, Eren emerged from the room.

The expression he wore on his face suggested that the outcome of the test was not what he had been hoping for.

“How’d it go?” Armin asked tentatively.

Eren looked at him with a mixture of dismay and some embarrassment. “I got a 70…”

Not the outcome they wanted at all.

“Well, you didn’t fail it though!” Armin tried to encourage him a bit.

“Yeah, but a D isn’t considered passing either as far as tests go…” Eren responded dejectedly.

Armin frowned. It was true. A score of at least 74 had to be achieved before one could get credit for the class. They would have to try harder next time. For Eren’s sake.

“You want to grab some lunch?” Armin offered. “Take our minds off the exam a bit?”

“Sure,” Eren agreed, his voice a bit lackluster.

The two headed to the university’s student center since eating at all the city’s cafes had begun to add up in terms of the money they had been spending. After grabbing a couple of sandwiches, they sat at a table near the building’s windows and tried to relax a little.

Eren was noticeably quiet and Armin tried to cheer him up by talking about some of the bands they had been listening to recently.

“I know we’re both on a bit of a budget, but maybe we can go to some of the shows that happen on the weekends?”

Armin didn’t really have the strongest desire to go to any shows, but he figured Eren would like the idea so he at least put it out there.

Eren simply frowned and stared at the sandwich in his hands.

“I don’t know. It might not be the best idea. It seems like if I hope to have any chance of passing my classes this semester, I’ll need to devote all my free time to studying.”

There he went, turning everything back around on himself and making it negative.

“Well, to be fair, that test was kinda tricky,” Armin said, trying to comfort Eren a little. “The last half even threw me for a loop at times.”

“Yeah, but at least you got an A,” Eren replied, somewhat bitterly. “I just wish I wasn’t so hopeless.”

Armin frowned, “You’re not hopeless, Eren. Don’t worry, next time-“

Eren interrupted him before he could finish, “Next time I’ll just completely fail the exam, along with all the tests in my other classes. I’m an idiot, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Eren, stop!” Armin exclaimed rather loudly.

Eren looked up from his sandwich at the blonde boy he had grown so close to. A few people nearby had begun to glance over at them, but Armin didn’t care.

“You are not an idiot! Just because you didn’t do as well as you had hoped on this test doesn’t mean you’re doomed to failure for the rest of the semester! If anything, it should just spur you on to work harder, and when you do make an A it will mean so much more!”

Eren looked as if he was about to say something in reply, but Armin continued his speech, softening his tone a bit.

“Nothing in this world comes easy. I didn’t naturally make A’s all my life. I had to take time to work at it, and eventually it paid off. You’ll get there, I promise. And I’ll be here to help you every step of the way.”

Eren smiled faintly, “Thanks. I guess I needed that.”

Armin’s expression changed to a rather stern look.

“Yes, apparently you did. Now, I don’t ever want to hear you call yourself an idiot again, understood?”

Now Eren really smiled, “Yes, SIR.”

Armin returned the smile, and they both began to enjoy their lunch. Just then, two guys walked over to their table. It was Levi and Erwin.

“Ah, taking a little break from classes are we?” Levi’s rather monotone voice greeted them.

“Just trying to relax a bit after our exam,” Eren replied in between mouthfuls of his sandwich.

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to talk with your mouth full?” Levi reprimanded him.

Eren made a point to take a large bite from his sandwich before firing back, “Hey, YOU came up to us asking a question while we were in the middle of our lunch.”

Levi narrowed his eyes, “How charming.”

“We couldn’t help but overhear that your first exam of your college career didn’t exactly pan out like you wanted it to,” Erwin chimed in. “I just wanted to offer some help, if you need it. Levi and I are part-time tutors. Mostly for the math classes and chemistry. What subject are you having trouble in?”  

Eren took another bite before answering, obviously just to spite Levi, “The exam today was in Psychology. Thanks for the offer, but I think I’m good. I have all the help I need right here.”

Armin smiled slightly, but didn’t say anything.

“Are you?” Levi sneered, ever so subtly. “Seems rather unfair to put that burden onto your friend while he has to study for his own classes as well.”

Eren began to get visibly aggravated, but Armin spoke up to defend him, “It’s not a burden. Helping Eren helps me retain information too. We have a good system going.”

“Yes, I’m sure you do,” Levi replied, almost as if he could infer everything the last sentence meant.

“Well, regardless, we were only offering to help,” said Erwin. “If you decide to change your minds, just come find us. We’re usually in the library on the third floor in one of the study rooms.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure, we’ll let you know,” Eren dismissed them, almost finished with his sandwich by now.

“Come on, Erwin. They obviously have everything under control. We don’t want to get in the way of their… study sessions,” Levi said coolly. “Enjoy the rest of your lunch.”

Eren took one final bite from his sandwich and opened his mouth to showcase the mashed up food inside. Erwin and Levi turned to leave, a look of disgust obvious on Levi’s face.

Once they were gone, Eren swallowed his food and said, “Man, what a couple of bag of dicks.”

Armin laughed a little, “I think that was the most emotion I’ve ever seen on Levi’s face as he left.”

“Right?!” Eren laughed.

After the two finished their lunch, they began to head back to the dorms. They decided that they would spend the rest of the day in Armin’s room, not thinking about school and classes for a change. They could finally have some time to themselves.

As they were walking down the sidewalk leading away from the campus courtyard, they came across a group of people, one who was talking through a megaphone. The rest all held up signs and poster boards, informing all the students how they were damned to eternal suffering and hell because they hadn’t “found Jesus” and “come to the light”.

**“REPENT NOW, SINNERS! YOUR TIME WILL SOON BE AT HAND, AND ALL THE CORRUPT TEACHINGS OF YOUR PRECIOUS LIBERAL ARTS ACADEMIA WILL NOT HELP YOU!”**

“Man, these guys again?” Eren exclaimed, exasperated.

“I’ve never understood what they think to gain by all this,” Armin said, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t say I’m religious, but I do think there must be a higher power out there somewhere. And I don’t think this is how he’d want to gain followers…”

“Yeah, same,” Eren agreed.

**“THE FOUL AND DISGRACEFUL ACTS OF HOMOEROTICA ARE SHUNNED BY OUR LORD! YOU WILL REAP WHAT YOU HAVE SOWN!”**

“What a damn day this has been,” Eren sighed. “And this is just the icing on the cake.”

Suddenly, he stopped and turned to Armin after looking around the street.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea.”

Armin stopped too with a quizzical look on his face. Eren seemed to have that glint of mischief in his eyes.

“What…” Armin asked a bit hesitantly.

“I know we’re keeping things on the down-low, but I don’t really see anyone we know around,” Eren replied. “Let me kiss you.”

Armin was taken aback. “What? Here??”

“Yeah!” Eren said, his voice full of enthusiasm. “Come on, after everything that’s happened today, I feel like trolling these guys will lift my spirits.”

“Eren…” Armin said, trailing off. It was true though; the reactions from those religious nuts would be priceless. And Armin had been counting the minutes to when he and Eren could finally make out again.

After a moment of Eren pleading with his eyes, Armin relented. “Fine, let’s go for it.”

Eren wasted no time. In a flash, he had planted his lips onto Armin’s and the two kissed right there on the sidewalk. The guy on the megaphone was momentarily silenced, apparently shocked by what was transpiring in front of him. Only for a moment though. As Armin and Eren continued to make out, there came at once a cacophony of jeering and abject outrage. The two ignored it though. Eren’s tongue danced delicately around Armin’s mouth, and the feeling was divine. Armin gripped Eren by the waist as Eren slid his hand through Armin’s blonde hair. The two explored each other’s mouths for a few more moments before finally deciding that their point had been made.

As they pulled away from one another, Armin had to be careful to hide his appreciation of the moment by balancing a bit more on one leg. He had never done anything like that before. The fact that it was in public seemed to heighten the sensations to a higher degree than when he and Eren were alone in each other’s rooms.

“Now that was nice,” Eren said quietly, a bit breathless.

The shouting and ridiculing continued, but Armin continued to ignore it. “Yeah, it was. Good idea.”

They both then continued on their way back to the dorms, leaving behind the irate crowd of street preachers. Armin discovered something about himself as he thought back to what had just happened. As long as he was with Eren, he found that he could do things that he otherwise would never have conceived of before. He was more comfortable in Eren’s arms than he had ever been in his life before. He also thought back to what Levi had said earlier.

By no means was Eren a burden. Indeed, he was as light as air. It was as if the sun shined through him. In the darkness of Armin’s doubts and fears he was light incarnate.

He was Armin’s guiding light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this brief chapter! And as always, please let me know what you think of the story so far. Also, please suggest what you would like to see more of in future updates! Until next time :D


	8. If One of These Two Walls Could Speak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so you all may have noticed the rating change here. This chapter sees Armin and Eren's relationship take another step forward. And... well, you'll see ;)  
> The song for today is a bit of a special one, but I believe the chapter today finally warrents its use. If you decide to give it a listen, you may recognize its title... And no, it is not a coincidence. Here ya go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z62R6Wsi6ek

The next few weeks came and went, and with them, summer and those warm, enveloping nights of the early semester. A slightly chilly air replaced them, and the leaves on the trees turned from green to a golden-orange. The workload of everyone’s classes also increased substantially. The week of midterms was just around the corner, and although a couple of Armin and Eren’s classes had had their own tests a few weeks previously, each and every one of their classes had a midterm to some degree.

While Armin took it all in his classic stride, Eren was stressed to almost his breaking point.

“I’m telling you, babe, it’s over for me,” Eren exclaimed in a highly distressed voice while he paced around his dorm room. “I’m done for. Game over. G-G, W-P.”

“But you did so well on those last two tests a couple of weeks ago!” Armin tried to reassure him from his perch on Eren’s bed. “You’ll be fine! Look at it this way, two of the tests will have barely any new material, and the rest we’ve been preparing for! Mostly…”

Eren stopped his pacing and turned his head sharply to scowl at Armin.

“Yeah, we kinda forgot about our chemistry class, didn’t we?”

Armin put his hands up slightly in a gesture that signified some degree of an apology.

“I know, I know,” he said in a conciliatory tone. “It’s just that whenever we’re in class together, the one thing I can’t seem to keep my mind on is… well… class.”

Eren frowned, but slowly walked over to his bed and sat next to Armin. He put an arm around him, and Armin leaned over to rest his head upon it.

“I’m sorry,” Eren said softly. “I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was blaming you for anything. Honestly, if it wasn’t for you, I would have definitely flunked out by now.”

Armin raised his head slightly to turn and look into those green eyes he so loved to gaze at.

“That’s not true. You really didn’t need my help as much as you think you did those last two times.”

“You might be right,” Eren conceded, but then a slight grin formed on his face. “But I would have definitely not been able to make it past next week if I didn’t have you.”

Armin decided to play Eren’s game this time and turn it right back onto him.

“So, you’re saying that you’re going to pass the midterms next week then?”

Eren looked a bit taken aback. “I guess I did say that, huh?”

Now a grin began to spread across Armin’s face as he nestled his head deeper into Eren’s shoulder. “And it’ll all be because of me…?”

“Whoa now, try to have some level of modesty. I was just trying to be sweet.”

Eren didn’t have time to react as Armin sprang up and began to punch him. Not hard, but enough to make his displeasure with the last comment known. The two grappled a bit and eventually fell back onto Eren’s bed where they continued to play-fight with each other. After another moment, they slowed a bit and found themselves wrapped in each other’s arms, breathing heavily.

“Got all that outta your system, have you?” Eren asked, breathlessly.

“Not quite,” Armin breathed in return as he leaned forward and pressed his lips onto Eren’s in a passionate kiss.

The two of them stayed liked this for some time, their lips softly caressing the other’s. Armin licked at the corner of Eren’s mouth, and the other boy let out a soft moan. It was then that Armin noticed that they had been grinding into one another. This sort of thing had happened before, but this time it was much more intense. Armin was extremely aroused, and he could feel that Eren was too. He also felt that his underwear had gotten a bit damp, and pulled away from Eren which warranted a sound of disapproval from him.  

“Sorry, I just need a moment,” Armin said between breaths. “And some air.”

Eren frowned and didn’t look to the blonde as he said, “It got uncomfortable for you, didn’t it?”

Armin paused. He didn’t know exactly what to say to that. It was true though.

“It’s alright,” Eren continued. “I’d never pressure you into anything. Any next steps we take, we’ll take together.”

Armin smiled. Eren always seemed to know exactly what to say to put him at ease. Something that he was extremely grateful towards him for.

“Hey, how about we head to your place and crack open some books?” Eren suggested as he rose from his bed. “I’m going to be as studious and erudite as possible!”

Armin laughed slightly, “Your vocabulary definitely seems to suggest it too.”

As Eren opened his door, he turned his head slightly and replied, “I’ve learned from the best.”

And with that, they were off. As they entered the courtyard, they spotted Mikasa sitting on a bench with two other girls. One of them was Hange, while the other had her back turned to Armin and Eren. She had blonde hair that glistened a bit in the sunlight.

Mikasa noticed the two boys and waved them over.

As Armin and Eren walked up to the bench, Mikasa said to Eren, “Hey. I was just about to text you. We’re coming up with an idea for a trip in a couple weeks.”

“Ooh, sounds fun. Where to?” Eren asked.

“Up north in the mountains!” Hange answered enthusiastically. “After midterms are over, we wanted to kind of get away from the city and relax a bit for the weekend. Interested?”

“Hell yeah I am!” Eren exclaimed. “Armin?”

Armin thought about the idea. Although he’d lived in a pretty rural area, he’d never really been camping before. If this was going to be his first time, he’d definitely want it to be with Eren.

“Sure, that sounds pretty cool,” he answered.

“Yay!” Hange exclaimed happily.

Armin noticed that the blonde girl sitting there was looking at him. Her eyes were a shade of blue that were almost exactly the same as his own. In fact, they looked remarkably alike. If one didn’t know any better, they could easily be mistaken as siblings. It was a bit creepy.

“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” she said as she held out her hand. “My name is Krista.”

Armin took her hand, “Armin. Mikasa’s roommate, right? Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” she replied with a smile.

As the two finished their introductions, two other guys walked over to their little group. It was Jean and Marco.

“What’s up, guys?” said Jean. “And gals.”

“Nothing much,” Eren said. “Just planning a little weekend getaway after midterms.”

“Oh, cool! Is there a limit on how many can go?” Jean asked.

Eren looked to Mikasa with a questioning expression on his face.

“No, actually. The more the merrier. It’ll make the cost cheaper when we pay at the gate to the park. We’ll have to take multiple cars though,” she explained.

“That’s fine,” Marco said as he wrapped an arm around Jean. “Jean and I can drive up in my car. We’ll, uhh… be sure to bring our own tent too.”

Armin was a bit surprised. Were Jean and Marco in their own relationship like he and Eren were?

The question was asked for him by Mikasa.

“That’s cool. You two looking to have a lover’s getaway?”

She was always so blunt. But Armin couldn’t help but appreciate that about her.

Jean laughed a little, “I guess you could say that…”

“Well, just try to keep it down at night. I’m looking forward to getting some much needed rest that weekend,” Mikasa said in her matter-of-fact tone.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Marco reassured her. “Jean is always so quiet when we-“

“Dude!” Jean interrupted him as he turned a shade of red.

Armin really didn’t know what to say, so he looked away. As he did, he noticed that Eren looked just as surprised as he felt. His eyebrows were raised a bit, but he also looked somewhat amused.

“Where are we headed anyway?” Marco asked.

Hange immediately leapt up to explain everything about the campsite, but Armin didn’t pay any attention to what she said. He noticed that there were two more people headed towards them.

Levi and Erwin.

Eren must have noticed too, because Armin heard him say under his breath, “Ah, hell…”

“Hello, Mikasa,” Levi greeted the dark-haired girl still sitting on the bench.

He then looked at Armin and Eren with narrowed eyes. “Boys.”

Eren already looked flustered.

“Oh good, you got my text,” Mikasa replied. “So, interested in the trip?”

“We talked it over, and I don’t know if we can make it,” Erwin answered. “We will probably have to help some of our professors grade midterms that weekend since we’ve been taking a more active role as TA’s this semester.”

“Aww, that’s… just too bad,” Eren said in mock disappointment.

“We also wouldn’t want to get in the way of any… teenage bonding moments,” Levi said with a sneer as he continued to look at Armin and Eren.

“And yet you always seem to crop up just about everywhere me and Armin go,” Eren replied with a sneer to match Levi’s. “Someone might even think that you’re following us.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Levi snapped. “Besides, should you even be going on this little trip? With all the struggling you’ve been having with your classes? Or maybe it is a good idea, and you can just stay behind when the rest return to the city while you live out your life in the forest away from society.”

Eren looked furious. Not wanting him to do anything that could get him into trouble, Armin spoke up, “At least he’d be able to make it out there. You talk big, but I bet you wouldn’t last a day away from your comfortable life here.”

Everyone quieted at this. Even Armin himself was slightly shocked at what he had said.

“So, the little blonde one has some teeth after all,” Levi said with contempt.

“You’re calling HIM little? He’s even taller than you, you imp,” Eren laughed.

If looks could kill, Armin and Eren would have been in a great degree of danger. But then Levi paused, and a worrisome smile, although quite faint, formed across his face.

“You know, we won’t be as busy as Erwin here thinks,” he said slowly. “I think we can let our professors sort out those exams by themselves. We’d be… happy to join you all on this small vacation.”

Eren looked stunned. Mikasa, however, looked unfazed.

“That’s fine. But I expect there to be no bickering while we’re there. I want to RELAX. Not listen to you all argue and insult each other the whole time,” she said firmly.

“Don’t worry,” Levi said, the faint smile still present. “We’ll be on our best behavior. Won’t we, Erwin?”

Erwin looked a little confused, but replied, “Yeah. Of course. It should be a fun time.”

As he and Levi turned to leave, Levi called back over his shoulder, “See you then.”

As they left, Eren turned sharply to face Mikasa.

“Mikasa, what the fuck?!”

“Eren, this is MY trip, not yours,” she said sternly. “If you don’t think you can act maturely around them, then don’t come. No one is forcing you.”

“ME act maturely?!” Eren cried out incredulously. “What would you call that shit?!”

“Look, I don’t know what it is that is going on between you and Levi, and frankly, I don’t care,” she dismissed him. “He obviously knows how to get under your skin, and you let him. You’re always like this with my friends. If you actually gave him a chance, you two might actually get along.”

“Like hell we would,” Eren said angrily. “Thanks for sticking up for me back there too. I really appreciate it.”

And then he stormed off towards the building that Armin’s dorm was in. Armin stood there for a moment, not knowing whether he should follow him or give him a minute to calm down.

“Well, that was… uncomfortable,” Hange said slowly.

“Is he always like that?” Krista asked Mikasa.

“Eren has always been Eren,” Mikasa sighed. “He hasn’t changed, and I don’t think he ever will. He lets people get to him too easily. I used to defend him constantly when we were growing up. But I’m not going to do that here. He needs to learn to act like an adult. It might sound harsh, but I’m not getting into fights for him anymore. He’ll be alright. He just needs a few minutes to sulk.”

Jean and Marco looked a little disconcerted too. The group of them talked about the trip for a few more minutes, but Armin found that although he heard what they were all saying, he wasn’t exactly listening to them. He wanted to find and comfort Eren, but he figured Mikasa was right. Eren really needed to learn to ignore the people that pissed him off. He always wanted to make a point to them. Like with those street preachers a few weeks back.

Jean and Marco eventually left, heading out into the city. As they walked off, Armin noticed that they were holding hands. They looked so natural. They didn’t care what anyone thought of them, and indeed, no one seemed to care at all. They were content with their relationship.

_Why aren’t we like that?_ , Armin thought to himself about his and Eren’s relationship.

“So, I’d just like to say, thanks for inviting Eren and I on the trip,” Armin said to Mikasa. “I don’t know if we’ll make it since Eren-“

“Don’t worry about that,” Mikasa said waving her hand. “He’ll go. If anything, he wouldn’t want Levi to think that he won by causing him to stay here and miss out. It’ll be fine.”

Armin nodded his head, but remained a bit unsure. He really didn’t want Eren to do something he didn’t want to do just out of spite.

“Alright, well we’re going to get something to eat,” Mikasa said as she and Krista stood up. “I would say you’re welcome to join us, but it might be best if you go and find Eren. You seem to be pretty good at calming him down.”

Armin smiled slightly. It was true.

“We’ll keep you guys updated on the plans. See you later,” she said as the three girls walked off.

Armin headed in the direction Eren went, and entered the building. He didn’t see him anywhere, and wondered for a moment if he should call him. He decided that he would head to his dorm first. Sure enough, once he entered the hallway, he saw Eren leaning against the wall by the door.

“Hey,” Armin said quietly as he reached the still heated looking boy he cared so much for.

“Hi,” Eren said without looking at him.

As Armin unlocked the door with his keys and they went inside, Eren grabbed his arm.

“Thanks for that earlier,” he said. Unlike the way he had spoken to Mikasa, this time he sounded completely genuine.

“You don’t have to thank me,” Armin said as the door closed behind them. “I would never let anyone talk to you like that.”

Eren smiled as he pulled Armin closer to him. “I know, but still. Thanks.”

They kissed gently and when they parted Armin said, “I know you might not want to hear it, but you really should just ignore that guy. Mikasa might have a-“

Eren pushed away from Armin with a scoff, “Don’t you start now. I don’t care what I should and shouldn’t do. He’s such an asshole, and I’m going to treat him like one.”

Armin tried to pull him back, “He is, but you’re just feeding into what he wants! Imagine how he’d act if you ignored him and he wasn’t able to come up with anything else to say.”

Eren stood still for a moment as he thought about what Armin said.

“I guess… I just don’t know if I’m capable of that though.”

Armin wrapped his arms around Eren’s waist and said quietly, “You’re capable of anything you set your mind to. Believe me, I know.”

Eren smiled and buried his head into the side of Armin’s neck. His breath was warm, and Armin thought that if all he ever did for the rest of time was to stand there like this, he would be content.

After a brief moment, they made their way to Armin’s room and shut the door behind them. As Armin went over to his desk to pull out some of the textbooks they would be studying from, Eren sat on the edge of the bed.

“So…” he began to say as Armin continued grabbing books and notebooks. “Jean and Marco look like they’re getting along pretty well.”

Armin paused. He turned back to look at Eren.

“Yeah, they do, don’t they?”

Eren shifted slightly from where he was sitting. “It sounds like they’re even… you know…”

_Getting very intimate with each other?_ Armin thought.

From what Marco was about to say before he was interrupted, it did seem like it. Armin had thought about that sort of situation with Eren before. He’d thought about it a lot actually. Earlier, it seemed like it might have happened. But he hesitated, and put Eren in the spot of feeling like he was pressuring Armin. It was just that Armin had never been with anyone like that before. He didn’t know if that was true for Eren or not either.

Eren stood and walked over to Armin.

“Hey, we don’t need to compare ourselves to them,” he said. “I think we have a good thing going.”

“Yeah,” Armin said quietly. He just felt that while Eren was so upbeat and keen on trying new things, he weighted him down in some ways. Why was he being so cautious?

“Do you feel comfortable with what we have?” Eren asked, a look of slight concern on his face.

“Yes!” Armin exclaimed. “I do, really! I love every moment that we’re together. I just can’t help but feel like…”

“Like what?” Eren asked, the concern still visible.

“Like… I’m holding you back…” Armin replied, looking down to the floor.

Eren’s hand touched Armin’s chin and pulled up so that he could look into his eyes.

“Armin. You’re not holding me back at all,” he reassured the other boy. “If anything, you’re helping me try out new things, and to be a better person. And just like you said; every moment we’re together is fantastic.”

Armin smiled and rested his head on Eren’s outstretched hand.

“I don’t want you to go out of your way to do things just because you think I want you to though,” he said. “Like the whole camping trip thing…”

“Oh, because of Levi? Fuck that guy,” Eren said derisively. “I WANT to go! And I’ll even try what you suggested. Maybe I’ll really irritate the shit out of him for a change.”

As Armin looked back up to Eren, their eyes locked.

“And the same goes for you,” he continued. “Don’t feel like I’m ever wanting you to go out of your way for me.”

They kissed again, and this time it was much more passionate. Armin began to feel again the same sensation he had felt earlier. He wanted to be as close to Eren as possible. This time, he wouldn’t let his own securities get in the way. He was happy with Eren, and he wanted every bit of him that he could have.

They continued, and in the middle of it all, Armin spoke between every kiss. “I think… we should… try out… what Jean and… Marco… have been… enjoying.”

Eren answered back the same way, “Only… if you… want to.”

Armin pulled away to reply, “Yes. I want to. As long as it’s with you, I want to.”

Eren grinned, “Well, there’s no one else here…”

Armin pushed him towards his bed. He took his shirt off while Eren did the same. Armin practically fell on top of Eren as the other boy placed both his hands onto Armin’s face. They resumed their make-out session and slowly began grinding their hips together.

“Let’s ditch these,” Eren said as he began to undo Armin’s pants. Slowly, he pulled them down while Armin kicked them off, only in his light grey underwear now.

He began to do the same for Eren, but was stopped when Eren said, “Hold on. Let me.”

Armin was a bit confused at first, but then as Eren very delicately began to unbutton and pull his zipper down, he realized that this was a better idea. Eren continued to gently tug at his pants, until they were down to his ankles, his eyes closed the whole time.

He then allowed Armin to remove them the rest of the way, and the two resumed their passionate embrace. Eren’s body was so warm and inviting. Armin could feel his pulse quicken and his breaths hitching in his throat. Imagining this was one thing, but actually experiencing it was something else.

Armin could feel the bulge in Eren’s underwear grow and grow, as his did the same. The pleasure was unreal, and he wondered if he’d be able to control himself much longer.

“I want to see you,” Eren breathed into Armin’s ear.

For a moment Armin felt a bit embarrassed. No one had ever asked anything like that of him before. But then he remembered he was with Eren. And in the next instant, he had begun to pull down the last shred of clothing on his body until he stood there in front of Eren completely naked.

Eren gazed at the sight. Armin’s penis stood straight up in his aroused state. As Eren continued to stare, Armin felt his cheeks flush a bit.

“Your turn,” he told the green-eyed boy before him.

Eren pushed his underwear away from him until he too was laid completely bare. Armin took in the sight before him. Eren’s penis seemed to be slightly larger than his own, but he wasn’t dwarfed by any means. It looked divine. Interestingly, Eren’s tan skin didn’t lighten all that much even down there. Armin even noticed that there was a slight curve to the shaft.

They closed the distance between them, and sealed their mouths around one another. Eren’s hand had moved to cup Armin’s cock, while Armin caressed Eren’s perfectly shaped ass. Eren lowered his head a little, and began to suck lightly on Armin’s neck. The blonde let out a moan as he felt the two areas of his body be stimulated to a degree he had never felt before.

Eren continued suckling for a moment before he changed his position slightly and went lower and lower until he came across one of Armin’s nipples. He resumed, which warranted another moan of pleasure from the other boy. His tongue gently lapped at Armin’s now firm nipple, and Armin pulled his hand back to find Eren’s stiff penis.

As Armin began to lightly stroke it, Eren shivered and let out a moan of his own. He pulled back and brought Armin up closer to him. Armin sat on his lap, and felt the tip of Eren’s cock at the entrance to his hole. They kissed more and more passionately, Eren’s penis bumping into Armin the whole time, threatening to enter him.

After a few minutes, Armin slid back and dropped to his knees in front of Eren. Although he didn’t feel completely comfortable continuing what had just been happening, he would allow Eren to enter him in other ways. He took hold of Eren’s blazing cock and gently licked it from its base to its tip.

Eren let out a long moan and threw his head back in pleasure. Armin continued to lick and lick. There was precum that had begun to seep out of Eren’s penis, and Armin cleaned it with one swift motion with his tongue. Finally, he took the entire thing into his mouth and sealed his lips around it. He moved his head up and down, stimulating Eren into a greater plane of sheer ecstasy.

The taste of it wasn’t exactly pleasing, but it wasn’t terrible either. Armin took it all in, and felt aroused as he breathed in Eren’s scent as well. He bobbed his head faster and faster as his fingers caressed Eren’s bare chest above him.

“Fuck, I’m getting close,” Eren breathed in between moans.

Armin continued, his tongue wrapping around Eren’s cock inside his mouth.

“Armin! Oh, fuck!” Eren cried out, his head still hung back.

Armin’s fingers then crept lower and lower until they arrived at the entrance to Eren’s hole.

“I’m gonna cum!” Eren cried out again.

As one of Armin’s fingers gingerly poked inside Eren’s hole, the green-eyed boy was done for. His head jerked forward, and with it his penis as he came into Armin’s mouth. His penis twitched with each pump of cum that issued forth out of him and into Armin’s mouth.

Eren let out a final moan and slumped backward onto the bed, his cock still dripping white fluid. Armin swallowed some of it, but couldn’t bring himself to take it all down and let the rest dribble out of his mouth and down his front onto his own burning erection.

He stroked Eren’s penis one more time before the other boy sat up and with both arms pulled Armin towards him. As Armin stood up, he wasted no time taking the blonde’s cock into his waiting mouth. He had seemed so spent and drained a moment before, but he wasn’t about to leave Armin unfulfilled. He vigorously slid his mouth up and down over Armin’s penis, returning the favor his friend had just given to him.

Armin’s moans seemed to spur him on, and he used his free hand to rub circles onto Armin’s inner thigh.

“Eren, go faster,” he said breathlessly. “I’m almost there.”

Eren didn’t need the instruction, but he picked up the pace nonetheless. Just when he got to the point where it didn’t seem possible to go any faster, he suddenly stopped at the base of Armin’s cock and then slowly and deliberately moved upwards, his tongue sliding against Armin’s penis the whole way to the tip.

With a slight yelp, Armin came and white spurts erupted from his rigid cock. Eren angled his mouth over the tip of Armin’s penis and got every last drop that came out. He swallowed all of it, and bent forward to gently lick up the remaining fluid on Armin’s now red penis.

They both collapsed onto Armin’s bed, breathing heavily. They were a sweaty, exhausted mess. As they caught their breath, Eren turned to look at Armin.

“I did pretty good for my first time, huh?”

“Well,” Armin breathed heavily. “You did well. Remember?”

Eren laughed, “Haha, right, right. I did well, didn’t I?”

“That... is an understatement,” Armin said still trying to get his breathing back to normal. “I didn’t know this was your first time.”

Eren leaned over and laid across Armin, “Yep. And I’m glad it was with you.”

Armin put his arm around Eren’s shoulders and said, “Yeah, me too.”

They continued to lie there, naked and unashamed. They kissed some more, but mostly just took solace in each other’s arms. Everything was right in the world.

The notebooks and texts that they were to study laid on Armin’s desk, untouched and forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok! This was the first time I have ever written smut. So if it sucks, sorry, I'm just not quite used to it. If the end wasn't really your thing, I hope you enjoyed the other half of the chapter! Things have finally really heated up, and it will only grow from here on out. Please let me know what you all thought! Until the next update!


	9. I Can't Let Go of You Baby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's been a little while since I last updated and I just want to say I'm sorry and that I haven't forgotten this story! I actually have had a rough couple of months. I was supposed to have one minor operation on my leg, but due to complications, it turned into three major surgeries... It's been hard to sit at my computer desk and type, not to mention order my thoughts well enough to write something coherent. I'm doing a lot better now, but it still sorta sucks. I've been out of work the whole time, but I'm hoping to go back in a couple of weeks. Once I get my life schedule back on track, I'm hoping that will also make it easier for me to sit down and write. Anyway, here is a rather brief chapter, but it has some cute moments in it. And here is the song for this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxKCklo8CBo

As quickly as it had arrived, the week of midterms passed in a furious swirl of studying, pulling all-nighters, and sitting through multiple exams with a headache to match the one Zeus allegedly had before Athena sprung forth from it into being.

Apparently, however, Athena was on Armin and Eren’s side that week.

Of the few tests that made their scores readily available upon completion, Armin had gotten A’s and Eren had gotten all high B’s. The two celebrated each victory with an intense make out session, but didn’t quite go as far as they had the week before.

Finally though, it was Friday afternoon, and everyone’s exams were over. Armin and Eren were at Mikasa’s dorm, having packed everything they could think to bring with them for the trip that she had planned.

“Ok, I think the gang is all here,” Mikasa said as she surveyed the room and everyone in it. “Since there are nine of us going we’ll need to take at least two cars. I think Erwin offered to drive one, right?”

“Correct,” Erwin answered, his camping bag on his shoulder.

“Alright, and I will drive mine. Marco, you said you were bringing your car, right?” she asked while turning to face Marco and Jean.

“Yeah… That was the plan…” he began to say before trailing off.

Jean chimed in to explain, “We think the alternator is shot. Drove up to the aquarium last night and almost didn’t make it back.”

“I see. Well that’s fine, as long as there are at least two cars of people,” Mikasa said before asking the assembled group of people. “So who’s riding with who?”

At once, Eren shot up from his seat and proclaimed, “Me and Armin are with you!”

Everyone looked at him with eyebrows raised to varying degrees.

“Ok…” Mikasa said slowly. “Well that’s three in my car.”

“I’ll tag along with you, Mikasa,” Krista said.

“Well, don’t everyone jump in our car at once…” Erwin said with not so subtle sarcasm.

“I’ll ride along with you and Levi!” Hange volunteered herself enthusiastically.

Eventually everyone had their rides planned out, with Jean and Marco also joining Hange in Erwin’s car.

In another half hour, the two groups were on their way to the campsite, leaving the bustling city and all of their academic woes behind.  

They passed the time between either small talk or listening to music off of their cell phones that connected to the car radio via an aux cord. Well, from either Eren or Mikasa’s phones. The two argued over who would play what song next, Mikasa saying she had final say because it was her car and Eren saying his taste in music was better.

Armin found himself gazing out of the car window more often than not as the urban setting gradually disappeared and turned more rural. After about an hour and a half, they were on a smaller road that passed through little towns and large expanses of either fields or wooded areas.

In another hour, the terrain had become much more elevated, with mountains and valleys all around them. It wasn’t much longer until they began their ascent up one of these mountains which would lead them to their campsite. The road snaked around it with sharp turns and railings that offered a barrier to the cliff sides that were always on one side of the car depending on the direction they were going.

“Mikasa, you can go faster than 5 miles per hour!" Eren complained, apparently not content with the speed and care she was giving to navigating the winding road.

“I’m not about to drive off a cliff just because you want to get there 5 minutes faster!” she shot back. “If you’re that impatient, get out and run up the road then.”

“Alright! I’ll be able to pee too,” he said, unbuckling his seat belt and reaching for the door.

“You better not open that door, Eren, or I swear to God!” Mikasa shouted as the car slightly jerked around one of the turns.

“Ok, can we please just calm down until we’re off this mountainside?” Krista asked, a note of worry audible in her voice. “I’m really not trying to die out here today.”

“There’s only one person in danger of dying out here today…” Mikasa said slightly under her breath.

“Yeah, because my bladder is going to explode,” Eren replied while squirming a bit in his seat. “You could have stopped at least once.”

“YOU were the one who wanted to get here in such a hurry!” Mikasa yelled again, Krista’s request going unheeded by the two of them.

They both continued to argue while Armin simply continued to stare out of his window. The higher they got, the more beautiful the landscape was. Mountains all around, each one of them covered in trees that had turned a brilliant shade of orange and gold.

There were worse places to die he supposed.

Before long, they had arrived at the campsite, having survived the drive up the mountain. Mikasa checked in with a man at a gate arm that allowed them into the park. They drove to the very back of the vehicle trail where their little makeshift campsite would be set up, away from any others who were out there camping that weekend as well.   

After they all filed out of the car and stretched, Erwin had pulled up in his car with Levi and the rest.

“Well, this is certainly a nice place to spend a weekend,” Erwin remarked as he surveyed the surrounding area. “Good call, Mikasa.”

“Yeah, I thought so too. God knows we all needed it after this week’s exams,” she said while also taking in the scenery. “Wait, where’s Eren?”

“I think he went off by those trees over there to…” Armin began, gesturing behind him.

Sure enough, Eren had come strolling back to the group with a look of relief etched onto his face.

“We aren’t even here five minutes, and the mutt has already begun marking his territory,” came a snide comment from Levi.

“Oh, did someone say something?” Eren said in a mocking tone. “I couldn’t quite make it out. Sounded like a rat from the city had stowed away in one of our cars and was complaining about the change in location.”

Levi bristled with fury, but before he could retaliate, he was interrupted by Erwin.

“I think now is a good time to set up camp since we’re all congregated here. It’ll be dark before long.”

“Good idea,” Mikasa agreed. “Eren, come help me set up our tent.”

Eren walked past Erwin and a still fuming Levi without giving either of them so much as a glance. Armin followed him over to Mikasa’s car and began to help them remove the tent from the trunk.

The whole group had four tents between them, and once they were all set up it was then time to decide who would be sleeping where. Levi and Erwin had their own, and the same was true for Jean and Marco. Hange, Krista, and Mikasa took another, which left Eren and Armin with a tent to themselves.

By then, the sun hadn’t set, but was low enough in the sky to make it seem like it had. Being in the forest on a mountain side made it much darker than if they had been out in an open space. It was decided that they would all spend the rest of the day starting a fire in the fire pit and then sit around it eating and drinking.

Marco asked if he could hook his phone up to Mikasa’s car and play some music. The playlist started off with a song by Glen Campbell titled “Southern Nights”. Rather appropriate really.

As the music played, the sky got darker, and the air grew more chilled, the group roasted sausages and marshmallows over the flames of the fire.  

“You know, this does feel pretty nice,” Jean remarked leaning back with a thoroughly roasted marshmallow on a stick.

“Good. I figured we all could use an outing like this,” replied Mikasa as she was toasting a marshmallow of her own.

“Anyone want another beer?” asked Erwin as he rummaged through the cooler.

“I’ll take two,” Eren answered.

Erwin raised his eyebrows, but tossed two cans over to Eren who rather gracefully caught both. He then turned to Armin and gave him one.

“Oh, I think I’m alright,” Armin said trying to decline the beverage.

“C’mon, we’ve only had a couple the past two hours,” Eren persisted. “Last one.”

Armin relented and began to open the can. As he did, there was a slight spray of foam and some of the liquid got on his pants leg.

Eren started to laugh, but quickly tried to stifle it as Armin glared at him while holding the can out away from him.

“Sorry,” he said still trying to hold it together. “I guess they got shaken up a little. You gotta know how to open them. Observe.”

Eren held his can out in front of him and gingerly began to open the tab. In an instant, a geyser of foam and beer shot out straight at his face which caused him to fall back into his chair, his legs going straight up into the air while a single “FUCK!” rang out in the night.

The entire group erupted into laughter at this.

“Yeah, Eren! That’s exactly how you open a beer!” Jean yelled out. “Couldn’t have done it better myself!”

The laughing continued as Eren stood up and wiped the sticky liquid off of his face and clothes.

“Hey, laugh all you guys want, but I still have half a beer in this can.”

“Yeah, and the other half is all over your face,” Levi said with a slight smile.

Eren made a face and stuck his tongue out at him before taking a drink from what was left in his beer can.

Armin chuckled softly. Eren really could be a dope sometimes. But he was his dope.

The group sat around the fire and talked some more before the day really began to catch up with them. As the fire began to dim, they all began to make their way to their tents.

“Alright, who’s up for hiking up this mountain here tomorrow?” Erwin asked everyone.

There were a few lackluster sounds of acknowledgment, but Armin actually liked the idea. He missed the outdoors after spending a couple of months in the city.

As he and Eren got into their tent, Armin made for his sleeping bag, but a hand on his shoulder caught him first.

“Hey,” Eren’s voice came softly from the dark. “Want to sneak off somewhere more… private?”

Armin furrowed his brows while slightly smiling, “Eren, we have our own tent. I’d say this is pretty private.”

“Yeah, but we can’t see the stars from in here!” he insisted. “Without all the light pollution from the city, it’ll look great out here.”

That was most likely true.

Armin sighed, “Fine, but we need to be quiet. We don’t need Mikasa or any of the others getting worried.”

“Uhh, you do know who I am, right?” Eren said in a rather faux haughty voice. “I am as silent as a ninja, as nimble as a cat.”

“Yeah, one who elegantly sprays beer all over himself too,” Armin playfully added.

“That was Erwin’s fault!” Eren exclaimed in his defense. “I bet he shook those cans before he tossed them. It was a setup.”

“Mhm, sure it was,” Armin said, and before Eren could respond he had placed a kiss on his lips, silencing the other boy.   

Eren returned the kiss, his hands gently caressing downwards on Armin’s chest.

He suddenly pulled back and said, “Whoa, somebody is happy to be with me tonight.”

“What?” Armin asked. It was true, he was happy to be with Eren, but there seemed to be more to his comment than that.

Eren laughed slightly, “Your pants are wet.”

“Oh, they must still be damp,” Armin replied. “It was from that beer that sprayed on me.”

“Mhm,” Eren said in a slight mocking tone, “sure it was.”

This time it was Eren who planted a kiss on lips that were about to move in defense of a chiding comment.

After a brief moment, the two parted and crawled out of their tent. They took great care to be as quiet as possible as they made their way across the campsite. They avoided as many of the crunchy leaves as they could, but the light from the fire was not much help. Only flickers of small flames and embers provided any light in which to navigate in.

They made their way into the dark forest, eventually coming to a spot where there wasn’t much tree cover. It allowed for a perfect view of the starry night sky.

The two laid down in the grass next to each other, their arms around one another to keep warm.

“See, isn’t this much better?” Eren asked softly in Armin’s ear.

“It is a nice view,” Armin agreed, while he shivered a bit, “but it’s gotten pretty cold out here.”

“Then I guess we just have to think of some ways to keep warm,” Eren said while nuzzling his face into the side of Armin’s neck.

Armin relaxed into Eren’s grasp. He felt more at peace then than he could ever really remember. Even if it was freezing out there.

He gazed up at the stars above, their twinkling light seemingly putting on a show for him and Eren to watch. This really was a good idea that Eren had.

After a few moments, Eren whispered something that Armin was sure he wouldn’t have heard if his face wasn’t laying right beside his ear.

“Promise me you’ll never leave me.”

Armin turned his head to face Eren, who had tears in his eyes. They reflected the glimmering stars far above them.

“W-what? Why would you ask me that?”

“Please, just promise me,” Eren said, his voice almost breaking. “You don’t understand. Everyone I’ve ever known, ever cared for, has always left me behind.”

Armin tried to sit up, but Eren gently held onto his arms before he continued, “I don’t blame them. It’s always something I end up doing. I’m good at that. Messing up a good thing. I just go through life, ruining one relationship after another.”

“That’s not true,” Armin countered. “What about Mikasa?”

“She’s different. She’s always been there,” Eren said shaking his head. “She’s more like family anyway. But all the other friends I’ve had… they all leave in the end.”

Armin pulled the despondent boy close to him. “Eren. We are more than just friends. I can’t imagine a situation where I would ever leave you. And I promise you that I never will. No matter what.”

Eren smiled back at the blonde haired boy, his tears slowly falling down the side of his face.

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” Armin said back before leaning in and gently kissing him.

The two of them laid there, alternating between silently kissing, cuddling, and staring up at the night sky. After a while, they decided that it was time to head back to their tent and get some rest. It had been a long week.

When they made it back to the campsite, the fire had gone out and only glowing embers and ash remained. Their eyes had adjusted to the dark by now, so they made it inside the tent without too much difficulty.

As the two boys laid down and got into their sleeping bags, Eren’s voice came quietly from the dark again.

“You have some pretty small and thin lips, you know that?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Armin asked a bit defensively.

“Nothing!” Eren exclaimed. “I like them! They give such tender kisses…”

Armin rolled onto his side to face Eren. “Well there’s more where those came from… ninja cat boy.”

They kissed some more, albeit a bit awkwardly with the smiles they both had on their faces. They eventually drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms, but before they did, Armin had one final thought for the night: Mikasa had a great idea when she thought up this weekend getaway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, well I hope you all enjoyed! Next chapter will see more of how the trip pans out, and I'm excited to write it! I'm also so grateful to any of you who have stuck around and enjoy this story. Please leave comments and tell me what you think. And also leave any suggestions of what you want to see more of. All are welcome and appreciated. I'm still a bit weary of giving an exact time frame of when I will update, but I promise it won't be as long as since the last one. Again, thank you for reading, and see you all again soon!


	10. It's Our Hearts That Make the Beat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, it took a little while, but here's the next chapter! I kept trying to figure out how I wanted to write it, and so it took longer than any of the others to type up. But it has also turned out to be the longest yet. There's some more smut in the middle of it, but it doesn't last the entire chapter. I kept trying to decide where to end this chapter, but I think this is best. Things are really starting to develop as far as Armin and Eren's characters go! As always, here is the song, and I hope you all enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t8HWppY4T0

Early the next morning, as the sun began to shed its light on the forest around them, the group of youths began to rise and exit their respective tents. The early morning rays danced upon the gold and amber leaves creating a brilliant display of autumnal hues.

The air was crisp and quite cool, with a layer dew covering the ground at their feet. The smell of damp earth, pine, and smoked wood filled their nostrils.

It really was a beautiful morning.

“Alright,” came Erwin’s voice from over by the remains of the fire pit, “Everyone ready to hike up that mountain?”

“Jesus, Erwin, can we at least eat some breakfast first?” Levi said in a rather annoyed tone.

“Well, sure, I guess,” Erwin said a bit quieter than before. “I mean we could eat some of the power bars we packed on our way up to save time, but…”  

He trailed off as Levi’s expression only continued to darken. If that was even possible.

After about an hour, they had all finished their food and finally set off for their trek up the mountain path. The trail steepened almost immediately, and Armin thought that if it got any more intense, it would turn into a climb rather than a hike.

The view made up for it though. Every so often there was a break in the tree cover, and it allowed a scenic overlook onto the surrounding area. A vast sea of orange stretched for as far as the eye could see, the rolling hills of other mountains in the distance interrupting the far-off horizon. It was almost like the flames in the campfire from the previous night had transformed into the world around them. 

Erwin led the way up the trail as everyone else hiked on in varying degrees of strain. Levi didn’t seem very bothered, and neither did Mikasa. Jean and Marco on the other hand looked like they had just realized that they had made a very grievous error in judgment by agreeing to the hike. Hange and Krista seemed to be taking it alright, but were obviously not used to such an activity that early in the day.

Armin glanced over at Eren and saw that the other boy had a very determined look on his face. It was as if the uphill walk was a bit difficult for him, but he was doing his best to not show any sign of fatigue or slowing down. Armin, although a bit winded, kept the pace. His days of running long distance back in high school were of great benefit to him for things like this.

“Ok, listen up,” Erwin addressed the group behind him. “The number one most important thing to remember is this: Never leave the trail. Not even for a moment. That’s how people get lost and die-“

“What if I see a really cool stick that I can turn into a sort of wizard staff?” Jean asked.

“Uh, I guess you can go to grab it real fast-“ Erwin began to answer before being interrupted again.

“What if we come across a herd of deer and I want to get a really good picture for my photography class?” Hange inquired enthusiastically.

“Well, I mean, as long as you don’t stray too-“ Erwin was interrupted again as he attempted to answer Hange’s question.

“What if those power bars you’re so into really didn’t sit right with me and I have to take a shit like really bad?” Eren asked, a slight grin beginning to grow on his face.

“… Ok, seriously?” The older male had evidently reached his limit with their questions at this point.

As the rest of the group either rolled their eyes or chuckled after Eren’s question, Levi addressed Erwin, the barest hint of a smile visible, “It’s a fair question, Erwin.”

Erwin turned to the shorter male, a look of disbelief etched onto his face, “Not you too.”

Marco’s voice rang out next, “What if-“

“OK, FINE!” Erwin shouted at them all. “If you want to go off on your own and leave the safety of the trail while needlessly risking your lives, then go ahead! But when you’re out there in the middle of the night, lost, freezing, and starving to death, just remember that I warned you!”

After this outburst, the group quieted down and all began to take interest in the leaf-covered path at their feet.

He turned and began to march off up the trail, his pace much quicker and harder. They all began to follow him once more, no one saying a word.

Erwin rarely lost his temper, so witnessing him just then was a bit shocking. He was only trying to look out for them, after all, so they all felt a bit guilty for setting him off.

Well, all except for one it seemed.

Eren whispered into Armin’s ear, “Hey, want to sneak off after this next turn?”

Armin was genuinely taken aback by this. “Eren, what the-?!”

Eren gestured for the blonde to keep it down as Krista turned around with a raised eyebrow before refocusing her attention on the path ahead of her.

“Eren,” Armin whispered back, “didn’t you just hear Erwin? He said never to leave the trail.”

“Yeah,” Eren answered back, his voice taking on that devious tone whenever he began to concoct a scheme that invariably got Armin involved too, “and then he gave us all permission to go off and die if we wanted to.”

Armin looked over at Eren now with a look of exasperation. “So you want us to sneak off so we can die?”

Eren realized how what he said had come out, but continued to go on with it. “You always said you want us to be together forever…”

“BYE.”

Armin turned away and began to walk faster, trying in vain to cover his smile with a look of annoyance. He felt a tug on his arm, which caused him to glance back at Eren.

Those green eyes gazed at him, pleading with him to acquiesce to his desire to go off alone.

Just when Armin was about to give in, a voice called out from up ahead, “Now THAT is a view!”

Jean, next to Erwin, was standing on a rock outcropping that overlooked an enormous amount of scenery below them.

The rest of the group, including Armin and Eren, caught up to them, each of them marveling at the landscape that stretched for miles before them.

“Hey, let’s stop for a bit to take a break here,” Mikasa said to Erwin. “We’ve been hiking for almost two hours now.”     

Erwin nodded in approval, “Sure, this looks like a nice spot. Although I’m not quite sure if some of you deserve the break…”

Eren hummed to himself and turned to look out over the edge of the outcropping.

Armin simply smiled as he found a spot at the rocky edge to sit down at and enjoy the view. He didn’t really know how, but he found himself falling more and more in love with Eren each day. Even if he seemed to cause an endless amount of grief in all those around him.

Hange busied herself with her camera, photographing the scenery before them, while the others took turns drinking from water bottles or snacking on some of the power bars that they had brought along at Erwin’s behest.

Eren sat down next to Armin, joining the other boy as they took in the view.

“It really is nice up here,” Eren said as he gazed out across the treetops below. “Feels good to get away from all of that homework and those exams.”

“Yeah, it does,” Armin agreed. “I’m glad we got to do this.”

Eren cocked an eyebrow and looked over at Armin, “I’m actually surprised you tore yourself away from all of that studying that you do.”

Armin turned his head quickly to Eren with a bit of an appalled look on his face, “I happen to do plenty of other things besides just _study_ , you know.”

“Name two,” Eren said with a playful expression.

“Well… I read. Fiction. So that’s not studying,” Armin replied.

“I don’t know if that really counts…” Eren said in a cheeky sort of tone. “I mean, you read all the time when you study. So you’re basically doing the same thing.”

Armin tried to think of something else that was indisputably different. Why was it so hard?

Then his mind fell onto something that he knew he could use to sting Eren back with.

With a slight grin he said, “I put up with _you_ every day.”

Eren’s mouth fell open as his eyes widened.

With a hand over his chest, and a mock pained expression on his face, he croaked, “That… physically… _wounded_ me!”

Armin started to laugh as he pushed Eren playfully. The other boy laughed too and moved closer to him now.

“I really do appreciate that you do that,” Eren said with a sigh.

Armin’s smile began to turn to a frown as he remembered their conversation the previous night.

_Maybe I shouldn’t have said that…_ he thought a bit worriedly to himself.

“I was just kidding,” Armin said slightly hurriedly. “I’d take your company over studying any day.”

Eren looked rather impressed at this statement.

“That’s high praise coming from you. But it’s fine, I knew you were kidding.”

Armin smiled. He wished he could lean into Eren right there and warm up in the cold air. But with everyone else around, it didn’t seem to be the right time.    

“I wish we could just live out here. Just us two. And this could all be ours,” Eren said as he gazed out towards the more distant mountains.

It seemed their minds were on the same track. Sort of.

Armin looked over to him with a slightly confused expression, “What do you mean ‘ours’?”

A smile grew across Eren’s face as he deepened his voice and stretched his arm out, gesturing to the landscape in front of them, “Look, Armin. Everything the light touches is our kingdom.”

Armin suppressed a laugh. Eren really could be a dope sometimes.

He decided to play along this time though, “But what about that dark shadowy place?”

Eren answered, his voice still deep, “That’s Levi and Erwin’s home. You must never go there!”

Their eyes met, and both of them burst into laughter.

As their laughter began to quiet down, a figure had walked over to them.

“And what’s so funny?” came Levi’s bored voice.

Eren looked up at him with a large grin plastered on his face, “Oh, hey Levi! We were just talking about your shadowy realm.”

A confused expression crossed the older male’s face, “What?”

“Huh?” Eren said back, feigning ignorance.

Levi continued to stare at them, but instead moved the conversation to something else.

“Some of the others were worried you two were about to fall off from there. The way you’ve been pushing on each other and carrying on, I have to admit that I agree.”

“Oh, well your concern is noted and appreciated,” Eren said with a smile, “but we’re fine!”

The raven-haired male continued to stand over them, appearing to not really know how to respond to Eren’s sudden change in disposition to him.

“You know,” Eren said as he continued to looked upwards at Levi, “this is kind of weird. Looking _up_ at you, I mean.”

This seemed to do the trick.

Levi’s eyes narrowed, and he slowly nodded, “I can’t really decide what’s worse: Being stuck on this mountain until we leave tomorrow, or the fact that I have to spend this weekend with _you_.”

“Wait,” Eren said, his voice taking a sincere tone, “you mean you don’t want to be here with your BFF over there? I thought you guys were like Lewis and Clark out here?”

“Hardly,” Levi scoffed. “Erwin may get some sort of thrill about being out here in the sticks, but I don’t. It’s too… dirty.”

“Well, it’s a forest. There’s dirt,” Eren replied flatly.

Levi’s brow furrowed even further, “Yes, there is. Did all of your studying teach you that fact?”

Eren began to stand up, and for just a moment, Armin thought he was about to do something extremely foolish and dangerous.

“Ok, that’s it,” Eren said as he straightened up, Armin beginning to get up as well, “We’re going over here now. The view from here suddenly became very… dirty.”

Levi just glared after them as they walked back towards the others.

“Ready to continue?” Erwin asked as they got near to him.

“Sure!” Eren exclaimed. “And can you be sure to take the most overgrown and arduous path there is?”

Erwin smiled as he readied his pack and began to set off, “I was hoping someone would ask that! I know just the way.”

Armin made every conscious effort not to turn around to where Levi was following. He didn’t need to see the look on his face that was surely there.

The group followed Erwin’s lead once more, the trail climbing ever higher. There were other nice spots that allowed for a good look out across the land, and Hange continued to snap her photographs. There was a chilly breeze that whispered through the trees every now and then, their golden leaves falling to the ground.

Just when it seemed like they were near the top of the mountain, the trail took a sharp turn and begin to descend rather than continue to go uphill.

“Hey, what’s with the path?” Eren asked, causing Erwin to stop and turn to face him. “I thought we were headed to the top?”

“Oh, this mountain doesn’t have a trail that leads all the way up,” he said rather matter-of-factly. “It goes back down and loops back towards our camp here. I thought I mentioned that?”

“What! No!” Eren exclaimed in disappointment. “We can’t have just walked all this way to NOT go to the top! What’s the point of that?”

Some of the others began to mumble in agreement before Erwin held up a hand, “Look, remember what I said? Leaving the trail is dangerous. And there isn’t one that goes to the top. Besides, it’s already past noon, and we’re all hungry. It’s time to head back and make some dinner.”

Erwin’s point seemed to have been made at this, as everyone realized just how worn out they really were.

As they began to walk forward again, Eren continued to protest, “C’mon, guys! Going all the way to the top will be an accomplishment! It can’t be that far now. Mikasa?”

Mikasa simply shook her head and gestured for Eren to follow, “Eren, Erwin is right. We need to get back to camp. We can find another mountain on another trip.”

“But think of the satisfaction of conquering this!” Eren cried out.

Mikasa sighed and was about to reply back when a voice rang out.

“Hey, I think I found the perfect wizard staff!” Jean exclaimed excitedly, holding up a long, slender stick.

Everyone present simply stared at Jean and his prize.

“It’s sturdy enough…” he said quietly, turning away to focus on the stick.

After another moment, Eren turned back to Mikasa, “C’mon…”

“Eren, not this time,” Mikasa said, refusing his pleas. “Let’s go. Maybe you’ll even find a wizard staff of your own on the way back.”

Krista giggled softly as she walked with Mikasa and Hange, while Eren looked extremely vexed.

Armin couldn’t help but smile. He knew it meant a great deal to Eren to reach the top of the mountain they were on, but it was perhaps for the best that they begin to head back.

And he did always look rather cute whenever he pouted.

The two of them had fallen to the back of the group as they began to make their way down the path leading back to their camp.

“Alright, on my signal, follow me,” came a whispered voice in Armin’s ear.

“Huh?” Armin turned to look at Eren.

Those green eyes stared back at him, full of determination.

“We’re ditching these fools,” Eren stated a bit forcefully.

“Eren, not this again…” Armin began to protest, but Eren persisted.

“Look, I know you want to go all the way up too. Don’t deny it! And besides, after we get there, we’ll find our way back easy. This trail almost goes all the way, so it’ll be close by.”

By now, they had fallen back a good distance from the rest of the group. No one seemed to notice though, because they were all discussing exactly what sort of wood would be best for a real wizard staff.

“Eren…” Armin said quietly, a worried expression across his face.

“It’ll be worth it…” Eren half sung as he gently kissed Armin’s earlobe.

Armin sighed, and then relented, “Alright, fine. What’s your signal going to be, anyway?”

Eren squinted his eyes and looked up slightly before saying, “Umm… This.”

He grabbed onto Armin’s arm, and pulled him around as the group turned a corner down the path.

The two of them made their way back up the trail, and before long, they were back at the spot where it seemed that the path would continue on up the mountain before it went downhill instead.

“Ok, so if we just head straight up this way, it should lead us to where we’re trying to go!” Eren said excitedly.

Armin followed, and soon they had both left the trail behind. They walked between the many trees, the orange canopy overhead providing shade and cover.

As they continued their journey, Armin found himself thinking about the boy walking beside him. They had certainly come a long way the past couple of months. A couple of months. It had only been that long. It felt like Armin had known Eren for years by now. Probably because they spent so much time together. He could gauge just how Eren was feeling a lot of times. Although it was always obvious whenever he was angry, he did quite well at hiding the fact whenever he was sad or worried. But Armin found that when Eren was anxious, he had a habit of biting his lip. Or that whenever he was feeling down, he joked more often.

However, the greatest things that Armin had begun to notice weren’t just Eren’s habits; they were the things that Armin had begun to notice in himself. There was a time when the thought of sneaking off from a group to head out into the wild would never have been something that he would have agreed to. Hell, he would never have gone on a trip into the mountains with a group of people, even if he did get along with them. He also would never have put off studying as much as he did while with Eren. Sure, they still study a great deal, but Eren was very good at reminding him to come up for air every once in a while. He found that he really enjoyed the person he was now compared to the person he was before. Someone more willing to take a risk here and there while still finding time to be responsible and enjoy the life he had around him.

“You’ve been awfully quiet. Is everything alright?” Eren’s voice, with a hint of concern in it, interrupted Armin’s thoughts.  

“Oh, yeah!” Armin answered. “I’m fine. I was just thinking about stuff.”

“Like what?” Eren asked him.

“Oh, just us. And how lucky I feel to have found you,” Armin said with a smile.

Eren turned to look at the other boy, “Is that so? I always thought I was the lucky one, honestly.”

Armin closed the gap between them until their faces were just inches apart, his arms slowly wrapping around Eren’s waist.

“Maybe we both hit the lottery,” he whispered before he closed his mouth over Eren’s.

Their tongues danced with one another for a few moments before Eren suddenly pulled away.

“Look!” he exclaimed, gesturing to Armin’s right.

Armin turned his head, his arms still around Eren. There seemed to be a break in the tree line up ahead.

“I think we just found the top!” Eren said excitedly.

The two of them broke apart and walked the distance to the location Eren had been pointing to. Sure enough, when they got there it looked like they had indeed reached the summit of the mountain. There were rocks that had piled over each other, and another sort of ledge had formed like the one they all had sat at earlier. This time, however, the view was much more spectacular. They could see for miles the rest of the forest, other mountains in the distance, the orange colored leaves paired next to a brilliantly blue sky. It really was gorgeous.

Behind them, and even off to their sides, the ground seemed to slightly slope downward. They apparently could not go any higher than where they were now.

“Oh wow…” Armin marveled at the view. “The others really did miss out.”

“Oh, they’re going to miss more than that,” Eren said from behind. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have an audience though.”

Armin turned around to face him and saw that he had grabbed a blanket from out of his pack.

“Is that for…?” Armin began to ask, but stopped when he saw the smile spreading across Eren’s face.

“I told you I was going to make this worth your while!” he said, the smile now becoming a wide grin.

“Eren, but we don’t have any supplies or-“ Armin started to say again, but was once more interrupted by Eren who had quickly held up a bottle of lube.

“Well it seems someone put some thought into this…” Armin said quietly. “What about condoms?”

“What about them?” Eren asked.

“Eren, if we’re going to do this, we don’t need it to be unprotected,” Armin said as he crossed his arms.

Eren sighed slightly, “Armin, how many people have you ever done anything sexual with? Besides me.”

“None…” Armin answered a bit slowly.

“Same for me. And I’m pretty sure that neither one of us has to worry about getting pregnant. So let’s just enjoy the fact that we are exclusive to one another and that we don’t have to worry about condoms because of it,” Eren said as he began laying the blanket out on the ground.

Armin thought it over. He’d always been taught to use condoms if he was ever in the relevant situation. But Eren made a good point. As long as they only kept this sort of thing between them, there really was no need for them. And Armin couldn’t imagine a life where Eren or he would fool around with someone else like that.

As Eren finished preparing their spot, Armin took another look at the view in front of them. He’d always wondered where his first time would be, but he never imagined it would be on top of a mountain.

“You look stunning with that backdrop behind you,” Eren said admiringly.

Armin smiled as he sat next to Eren on the blanket, “Well, it’s all thanks to you. Maybe you’re idea to hike all the way up here isn’t such a bad one after all.”

“Not at all,” Eren returned the smile as he slowly brought his hand up to behind Armin’s head and pulled the blonde in for a passionate kiss.

Armin replied in kind, his tongue working its way into Eren’s mouth, exploring every single nook and cranny as if it were the first time. His arms wound their way around the brunette’s slender waist and pulled him even closer. The air may have been chill, but the warmth of their two bodies kept them from noticing.

After some moments, Armin noticed that Eren had begun to do something a bit different. Armin’s tongue was guided further into Eren’s mouth by the other boy’s own, and when Eren finally got it to where he wanted it, he began to gently suck on it, pressing it up into the roof of his mouth.

Armin let out an involuntary moan; it felt indescribably good. He kept his eyes closed and pressed harder into Eren’s waist with his arms. The sucking grew a bit more vigorous until it seemed like Eren was trying to take the muscle for himself.

As much as Armin wanted the moment to last forever, Eren had pulled away, leaving Armin pining for more. Not to mention his tongue felt almost numb.

Eren seemed to notice Armin’s yearning and held up a finger to signal that something more was coming. He grabbed a hold of Armin’s sweater and pulled it off. He giggled when he saw Armin’s usually quite kempt blonde hair now a ruffled mess.

He continued to grin as he also removed Armin’s shirt, taking in the other boy’s figure as he always did whenever he’d see him shirtless. This didn’t last long for soon he had lowered his head to Armin’s chest and delicately slid his tongue down the length of the boy’s torso.

Armin hung his head back and let out a quiet moan. Eren made his way back up and busied himself with one of Armin’s nipples, gently sucking on it while his hands rested on the blonde’s shoulders.

The quiet moan Armin had made a moment before was now followed by one that was considerably louder. He caressed Eren’s ears with both of his hands while Eren continued to brush Armin’s nipple as though it was a canvas and his tongue was a paintbrush.

This continued for a few minutes, and Eren made sure not to neglect the other nipple as well. Eren then removed his own sweater and shirt before slowly undoing Armin’s pants and lowering them to the boy’s feet.

Armin kicked off his shoes and socks before freeing his legs from his jeans. Now only covered by his underwear, the boy laid on his back while hungrily watching what Eren was about to do.

He didn’t have to wait long as the other boy gingerly caressed Armin’s frame all the way down to his last remaining article of clothing he had on, a not so hidden outline visible which indicated his intense arousal.

Eren rubbed a single hand over this final barrier before deftly grabbing hold of the material and sliding it down Armin’s creamy legs.

As Armin kicked the clothing away, he was now laid completely bare before Eren. The green-eyed boy lowered his head, and using the same technique he had with Armin’s chest before, he began to coat the other boy’s member with his saliva.

Armin’s entire body shuddered, not because of the cold, but because of how heavenly and stimulating the sensation Eren’s mouth was giving him in that sensitive area. Eren slowly licked around the length of Armin’s shaft, and when he arrived at the tip, he softly sucked for a moment while it seemed that Armin was going to collapse from sheer pleasure.

Eren pulled away while softly instructing Armin, “Ok, now turn over.”

“Wait,” Armin responded breathlessly, “I want to do something for you first.”

Eren’s eyes widened a bit while Armin leaned forward to quickly unfasten the other boy’s belt. In just a few seconds, he had pulled down Eren’s pants and underwear and took the boy’s entire length into his eager mouth.

As he wrapped his tongue around Eren’s shaft, it was now Eren’s turn to moan in ecstasy. Armin sucked with as much force as Eren had done to both his tongue and nipples before. He delicately rubbed circles into Eren’s inner thighs while making satisfied humming noises that vibrated against Eren’s cock.

When he finally drew his mouth away, Eren wasted no time in completely taking off the remnants of his clothing that had fallen to his ankles. He then lightly guided Armin back onto his back and pulled his legs up over onto his shoulders as he crouched in front of him.   

“Remember me mentioning about making all this worth your while?” Eren asked with a sly grin on his face.

Armin did indeed remember, but he wondered why Eren felt the need to ask that. This had already been pretty worth it.

A moment later, he discovered just how much better things would get.

Eren’s tongue went straight for Armin’s hole, sliding up and down the sides to the entrance of Armin’s body.

The moan that escaped from Armin was louder than any before. His eyes involuntarily closed shut, and he grabbed onto Eren’s hair, running his fingers through it as Eren continued to lick and nip.

Armin couldn’t help but move his hips a little, but this did nothing to dissuade from what Eren was doing. His tongue danced madly around Armin’s now wet entrance, while his nose brushed up against that extremely sensitive area of skin, each time prompting another moan of pleasure to issue forth from the blonde.

Eren kept up the work, and finally began to poke his tongue past the walls of Armin’s opening, and explore the inside of him.

“Oh god, Eren!” Armin cried out, one hand still clutching a tuft of Eren’s hair while the other moved up and down his own throbbing erection.

Eren spent a few more moments with his tongue inside Armin before he pulled back and grabbed the bottle of lube lying beside them.

Armin looked up at Eren, suddenly feeling so cold and empty without his intimate presence. The look he had on his face must have registered in Eren’s mind, because the other male quickly began to apply the lube to his aching cock.

As soon as he finished, Armin pulled him into a tight embrace and the two began to passionately crash their lips together, their tongues doing a mad dance inside each of their mouths. Both of their hips rocked into each other, the lube on Eren’s member beginning to leave a trail across Armin’s navel.

“Eren,” Armin panted between their furious oral exchange, “I’m ready. I want you. Inside of me.”

Eren gazed into the light blue orbs that were Armin’s eyes and brought a hand down to his waiting dick. He gently positioned it at the entrance to Armin’s still wet hole and slowly began to push forward.

Armin let out a slight groan, but relaxed his muscles as much as he could. Eren continued to edge further, his tip now completely enveloped inside Armin’s tight ass.

As Armin continued to moan, Eren began to slide back and forth, careful to not pull back too far lest he have to start the process over again. The lube seemed to do its job as he got further and further inside Armin.

Finally his hips were firmly up against Armin’s ass, his dick completely inside. He noticed how warm Armin was, his heat completely encircling Eren’s penis. It was a stark contrast compared to the cold air around them.

Armin relished the feeling he got from Eren being buried within him. It was as if they were one being. The blonde beckoned for Eren to move, and the other boy didn’t need to be instructed twice.

Eren began to push forth into Armin, sliding back and forth, slowly at first, but then picking up momentum. Armin had to make a conscious effort not to cry out. If he was being completely honest, it rather hurt a bit. But it felt so good too. He opted to make a whining sort of sound.

Eren began to slow, “Are you ok?”

“Please don’t stop!” Armin cried out. Evidently, he couldn’t completely hide the pain in the noises he was making.

“Please. Keep going,” he pleaded.

Eren continued to rock into him, his breaths becoming more and more frequent. Beads of sweat began to form on his brow despite the temperature.

For the first time since Eren entered him, Armin made eye contact with the other boy. He’d always noticed how beautiful his eyes were, but now they seemed to be even more striking. Behind him, the fiery orange of the leaves offered an amazing contrast to those jade marbles of his. His mouth was open as he virtually panted, but he still looked astonishingly beautiful.

“I love you,” he said between labored breaths.

“I love you too,” Armin replied, his voice strained.

Eren’s pace quickened, and so too did Armin’s on his own beating cock. They worked in unison with one another, a single burning entity full of unbridled passion, energy, and desire.

“I’m gonna cum,” Eren breathed as his rocking motions became faster and faster, pushing into Armin with greater force each time.

Armin couldn’t hold back anymore, and began to cry out in both pain and pleasure as Eren pounded into him. Then, with one great push, Eren let out a deep moan as he spilled forth into Armin. At about the same time, Armin also climaxed and white sticky liquid shot out in spurts all over his beet red chest.

Eren slowly rocked forth into Armin a few more times before coming to a stop and gently sliding his wet cock out of him.

He collapsed next to the other boy, the two of them lying there, breathing heavy and covered in both their own and each other’s bodily fluids while staring up into the sky above them.

“That… was amazing,” Eren said between breaths.  

Armin turned to him and softly pulled his face to his own before tenderly kissing him.

“Yes,” Armin replied, “it was.”

The two of them exchanged delicate kisses for a few moments longer before they realized just how cold they were.

Now that they had finished making love to each other, and the sweat had almost completely dried, their body temperatures had dropped quite a bit. They stood up and quickly got dressed after wiping themselves down with the blanket they had been on.

As Eren was pulling his hoodie over his head, Armin looked out over the landscape and took note of where the sun was hanging.

“It’s starting to get a bit late. I think we should head back,” he said to Eren.

“Yeah,” Eren responded while looking towards the sun as well, “I agree. Let’s find that trail.”

The two of them gathered up everything into their packs and headed back the way they had come.

After walking for what seemed like a good bit longer than it had taken them to arrive at the summit of the mountain, Eren said a bit loudly, “Holy FUCK I’m starving now!”

Armin realized just how famished he was as well. All the hiking had really drained them, not to mention his and Eren’s… activity.

“Grab some of those power bars in your pack. I have the bottles of water in mine,” Armin said.

Eren’s face suddenly took on a nervous expression, and his mouth formed a small ‘o’.

“What is it…?” Armin asked slowly.

“I, uh…” Eren began to explain, “may have… given the bars to… Jean and Marco…”

An incredulous look passed over Armin’s face as he exclaimed, “What?! Eren, why would you even DO that?!”

“They sucked!” he shouted in his own defense. “Really, I was legit worried that if I ate any more that I would end up shitting myself or something, and I didn’t want that to happen if we were going to… you know… do what we just did.”

Armin slowly shook his head and put a hand up to his forehead in an exasperated manner.

“Eren… That was our food…” he said quietly, his eyes closed.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t exactly think it all the way through,” the other boy said in a strained voice. He didn’t like seeing Armin upset, and it was about to get a lot worse.

“Well, I have one bar in my pack. And at least we have water,” Armin said as he began to rummage through the bag, looking for the only bit of sustenance that they had. “When we get to the trail, it shouldn’t take us that long to get back now that we’re going downhill.”

Eren shifted uncomfortably from where he was standing and put a hand behind his head, “Yeah… About that…”

Armin stopped his search and looked up at Eren whose lip was being ravaged as he kept biting on it.

“What,” Armin asked, although it was more of a statement.

“We should have made our way back to the trail by now. I’ve been looking for it for the past ten minutes. I don’t know where it’s at,” he confessed as he looked anywhere but at Armin’s face.

Armin felt a sense of dread begin to well up inside him. How could this have happened? They had packed enough food and water to easily get them up the mountain and back again. And Eren had sworn that he knew how to get back to the trail. And now they were lost and had one power bar between them, the sun getting lower and lower in the sky the whole time and with it the temperature.

“No, that… that can’t be right,” Armin said quietly, not wanting to believe the reality of their situation.

Eren finally looked at him, his voice and expression both despondent, “Armin, I’m sorry… I fucked up. But we’ll be ok. Let’s just keep walking this way; we’re bound to run into some part of the trail again.”

Armin finally found the power bar in his pack and took it and two bottles of water out. Eren was right. They would find the path again. If they kept walking in that direction, they had to stumble across it again eventually. Right?

They split the power bar in half but only ate a portion of each of their shares. They didn’t want to exhaust their one and only food source immediately.  

“Man, these things really are terrible. But I guess if it’s either suffering through them or starving to death… Wait, that’s actually still a pretty hard choice,” Eren said, trying to lighten the mood.

Armin just rolled his eyes, while trying not to smile as he munched on the bar. Eren really did mess up this time, and he couldn’t be allowed to joke his way out of it. Not until they made it back safely at least.

Noticing that his effort to be funny didn’t seem to be working, Eren tried again, “Well, if I have to poop, you’ll fetch me the finest leaves to wipe with, right?”

Armin frowned as he wrapped up the rest of the power bar, “Eren, don’t be crude.”

Eren gave up on the attempts at humor and wrapped what was left of his bar as well, “Sorry.”

A bit of an uncomfortable silence fell between the two for a while. Eren guided Armin in the direction he thought the trail would be, but other than that the two of them spoke very little.

_God, why do things always have to fall apart right when they seem to be going so well?_ Armin painfully thought to himself. _Maybe, I shouldn’t have been so hard on him. He was only thinking about the two of us, after all._

Still, Eren kept in front of Armin during their trek, so the other boy simply resigned himself to follow behind. After a while longer, they arrived at a sort of clearing and Eren stopped and held his hand up.

“Are we back on course?” Armin asked him.

Eren looked around in all directions before solemnly saying, “I have no memory of this place.”

Well, they were doomed.

Armin wanted to say as much, but stopped himself. He noticed the look on Eren’s face and knew that he obviously felt extremely guilty for their current predicament. He decided to respond in a different manner.

“It’s alright, like you said, if we keep heading this way-“

“We’ve _been_ heading the same way for over an hour!” Eren cut him off. “We’re lost. We never should have left the trail. Erwin was right. It was a stupid idea, and I never should have dragged you along. I’m stupid…”

“No you’re not,” Armin said calmly while gently grabbing Eren’s arm. “Honestly, that was the most romantic and hottest thing I’ve ever experienced in my whole life.”

Eren looked the blonde in his light blue eyes, “Really?”

“What, do you think I had guys whisking me away to mountaintops to have their way with me all the time growing up? I don’t know how it was for you, but I couldn’t even get people to notice me let alone-“

Armin was once again interrupted, but this time it was from an open kiss that Eren had planted onto his lips.

The two boys stood there in the clearing for a moment, cradling each other in a warm embrace.

Once they finally parted, Armin said softly, “I love you. And I trust you. I know we’ll make it back.”

Eren smiled, “I guess we shouldn’t keep the others waiting anymore.”

At this, Armin faltered a bit.

“The others! They’re probably so worried about us. We’ve been gone for hours.”

“I’m sure they were glad to be rid of us for a while,” Eren said while turning to begin the journey back again. “At least rid of me.”

Armin sighed and began to follow again. Eren really could talk down about himself. He made a mental note to prove him wrong at the first available opportunity.

On and on they walked, not once finding any semblance of the trail that would take them back to camp. They tried to use their phones, but could never get a signal. And all the while, the sun fell lower and lower.

Finally, the two of them arrived at a fallen log, the mountain they had been on to one side of them, and what seemed to be another on their opposite side. It was as if they were in a wooded valley between the two.

“Eren,” Armin began as he sat down on the log, “we have mountains on either side of us. If this one is separating us from our camp…”

He stopped when he felt a lump rising in his throat. This was getting serious now. They had at best an hour of light left, probably less. And it was going to be very cold, and all they had was that one blanket. Their power bar they had been rationing was long gone, and even the water supply was getting low.

_This is how people die_ , Armin worriedly thought to himself. _This is exactly how people die. Erwin was right to have warned us earlier…_

He felt tears begin to well up in his eyes, but he was determined not to let Eren see it. They couldn’t allow panic to overwhelm them.

Eren was gazing up at the mountains between the leaves on the trees, “I don’t know about you, but I can’t climb another mountain…”

“I can’t either,” Armin whole-heartedly agreed. If they were on the wrong side of this mountain, they were indeed doomed.

“Let’s just keep walking,” Eren said as he began to walk further down between the two mountains.

Armin rose from the log and followed him. They walked for a while longer, and now the sun had dropped to a point that it no longer shone between the trees. Only remnants of its light reflected down from the clouds above. The temperature had also gotten very cold.

Shivering, Armin was about to give up and tell Eren that the only way that they had a chance to survive was to huddle together under something for the night.

Instead, Eren pointed a finger up ahead and shouted, “Look!”

Armin followed his gaze and finger and saw up ahead what looked to be a gravel road. They ran to it and found that it had empty cabins spread out down its length.

“I remember seeing this!” Eren exclaimed happily. “This will lead us right to the road that we took to drive up to the campsite!”

They followed the road, and sure enough they saw up ahead the same road they had been on the day before while riding up in Mikasa’s car. After trudging up the hill, they saw the campsite.

The campfire was lit and everyone was standing around it, apparently having prepared dinner.

As they walked towards the site, Armin turned to Eren and asked, “How worried do you suppose they were?”

Eren nonchalantly replied, “Ah, I bet they didn’t even notice we were gone until they had been back here for an hour or more.”

“EREN!” Mikasa screamed as she saw the two figures approaching. “Where have you BEEN?! We turned a corner and looked back and the two of you were just gone! We searched for hours!”

“Or… not,” Eren said, a hint of concern in his voice. There was obviously about to be a stern lecture coming.

And come it did.

Mikasa laid into Eren for a good ten minutes, and when it seemed like she had finished, a word or glance from him would set her right back off again several more times.

Once night had completely fallen, everyone was huddled around the fire again, Armin and Eren ravenously eating the dinner that had been cooked while they were journeying back.

Mikasa had finally seemed to calm down, and while a few of the others, especially Erwin and Levi, looked to be more than just a little annoyed about the fracas caused by Armin and Eren’s sudden vanishing act, no one appeared to want to bring the matter up out of worry that it would trigger Mikasa again.

After dinner, they all enjoyed their last night of camping by telling embarrassing but funny stories about their past.

By this point, it had fallen to Levi to tell a story.

“There are no embarrassing stories for me to tell because I don’t get embarrassed,” he dismissively shook off the question.

“Well that’s not entirely true,” Erwin laughed as he began to recount an apparently relevant tale. “What about that time you drunkenly confessed-“

Levi shot Erwin a menacing glare which stopped the other male from continuing the story any further.

“Wait, what was that?” Eren piped up. “Drunken confessions? This sounds like exactly the sort of story we all need to hear.”

After some cheering on and demands for the story, Levi finally relented.

“Fine. But if this leaves this group, I will hunt every one of you down and gut you myself.”

After some wide-eyed promises to not tell a soul were made, Levi relayed to them all how he had once gone to a strip club with Erwin and proclaimed his love for one of the strippers there named Delilah. Except it turned out that Delilah was a man and had a fake left leg. And a fake right arm. And… other fake body parts.

As everyone laughed at what has since been known as “The Booby Trap”, Levi narrowed his eyes and said, “How about you, Jaeger? I’m sure you’re just full of these sorts of incidents.”

Eren quieted and then cleared his throat before saying, “Nope, not me.”

“Oh, I remember a certain incident involving some loose-fitting shorts…” Mikasa wily remarked from where she sat.

“Oh yeah, how could I _forget_?” Eren said the last word though gritted teeth.

He told them all the story of how when he was about ten years old, he had gone out to play with the other kids in the area he had grown up in. He was wearing some old gym shorts, but he had put them on thinking they were his before heading outside. They were, however, his father’s and so did not fit well at all. He had been riding his bike with the other kids across a busy intersection when the hem of the shorts got caught in his bicycle wheel, subsequently pulling them off of his body.

“So then I had to push the bike back home in my underwear while everyone laughed at me…” he finished the story, his ears turning faintly red.

“And quite a few people driving by too,” Mikasa laughed slightly.

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me…” Eren said as he rolled his eyes.

Armin found himself not able to hide his laughter. It was just that imaging a young, flustered Eren in his underwear pushing a bicycle home was pretty funny.

This did not go unnoticed by Eren who called Armin out next, “So since we’re all apparently volunteering one another now, how about you go, Armin?”

Armin quickly stopped laughing.

“Oh, uhh,” he stuttered. “Well…”

“He probably is going to say something like he forgot the answer to a test question or something,” Jean said before being nudged in the ribs by Marco.

_It’s true, all of my stories are just sad and pathetic_ , Armin thought to himself, conscious that everyone else’s eyes were still on him.

He then noticed the most important eyes out of the group. Those emerald orbs looking to him that seemed to glimmer with the light from the fire.

That’s when he remembered it.

“Well, there was this time in high school that comes to mind,” he began as everyone else paid attention. “One of my science teachers had been having a really tough year. Her mother had died, her husband left her, and she found out she had been diagnosed with cancer.”

“Jesus,” Jean exclaimed before being shushed.

“Anyway, I decided to do a little scientific presentation for her to try to cheer her up,” Armin continued. “Nothing too fancy. I just had the chemistry club help me set up some beakers and containers that would end up igniting and spelling out her name in her favorite colors on the football field. Her name was Beth. Well, some of my chemical equations weren’t exactly balanced right, which led to incorrect mixtures… There was a pretty large explosion and the containers fell down, spilling the liquids all over the turf… which ignited as well.”

At this point, everyone is enraptured by Armin’s story, hanging on to every word.

“Now, remember how I said that we arranged the containers to spell her name?” he pressed forth with his story while everyone silently nodded. “Well, when they spilled and caught on fire they… ended up spelling another word… And there, in front of the entire school and Ms. Beth who had been told that this was all for her, blazing in the middle of the football field was the flaming word ‘ **DEATH** ’. The reaction was about what you would expect… She left and never came back.”

There was a moment of pure silence. Which was then followed by the loudest roar of laughter ever had on the entire trip.

“Oh my god!” Jean cried between snorts of uncontrollable laughter. “That is amazing!”

Erwin seemed beside himself, and astonishingly, even Levi had covered his mouth with his hand, apparently not wanting anyone else to see him chuckle.

There were tears in both Mikasa and Eren’s eyes as Eren said, “See? I told you he’s funny!”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Erwin called out, giving everyone a moment to calm themselves a bit. He then gestured to Armin as he asked Eren, “Isn’t he tutoring you in chemistry?”

“Yeah,” Eren answered.

Everyone thought about what this meant for a moment and then fell into fits of laughter all over again.

Armin, however, was not as amused.

“Eren!” he grabbed the other boy by his arm. “It’s not funny! I felt really bad about that. I was just trying to make her feel better…”

“Yeah, no better way to make someone’s day by sending them a message straight from Hell,” Jean yelled out while still laughing.

Eren noticed the look Armin had on his face and slid closer to him, “Hey, it’s alright. Everyone just thinks it’s funny that you of all people almost blew up a school.”

Armin looked at Eren with a slightly exasperated expression.

“Hey, I’m not gonna lie,” Eren continued, “I’m pretty jealous. I wish I could say I did something like that. Instead, all I got is that great story of ten year old me giving perverted old men a show while I walked home barely clothed.”

This brought a smile and slight laugh out of Armin. Since everyone else was still too busy laughing and making jokes, they didn’t notice Eren and Armin’s little chat.

The stories continued for a little while longer, but finally it had gotten to the point where everyone was going to bed.

“Alright everyone,” Mikasa said as she stood up and stretched. “I think it’s time we all went to our tents and got some rest. We have to be out of here tomorrow before noon.”

As everyone shuffled off to their respective tents, Armin and Eren climbed into theirs and zipped up the entrance. They got comfortable and were sliding into their sleeping bags when Armin held out a hand to Eren.

“Wait,” he asked. “Can we… share a sleeping bag tonight?”

Eren raised an eyebrow, but began to smile too.

“You know, because it’s colder tonight than last,” Armin said in his best impression of Eren.

“Oh, is that the only reason?” Eren asked in a higher pitched voice than normal. “You know, it’s actually a little tight in here…”

Before he could completely finish his statement, Armin had already begun to slide into the sleeping bag and nestle up against Eren, taking the position of the little spoon.

“I could give you some other reasons too…” he said quietly as Eren laid down against him, wrapping his arms around him in a warm embrace.

“I’m sure you could,” he replied into Armin’s ear, “my little pyro.”

Armin snickered, “My little streaker.”

They cuddled together in the cold night, their bodies keeping each other nice and warm before they drifted off to sleep. They didn’t sneak out to gaze at the stars and the smoldering campfire this time, not just because they were so exhausted, but because the energy they had between them was more mystical and burned brighter than any star or campfire ever could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I hope you all enjoyed this one! There were a lot of parts that I really really enjoyed writing. My life is even more of a mess now than it was before; I was recently attacked and my tendon in my knee was re-torn in the process. But even though I'm dealing with an incredible amount of stress and other shit, I've found that this really takes my mind off things and puts me in a better mood. As always please let me know what you think, and thank you for taking the time to read.


	11. Both Your Hands in the Holes of My Sweater

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so this one is quite a bit shorter than the last, and originally I had it planned to be longer. But the ending was just so perfect that I couldn't not stop it there (also, you all have been so patient with me, so you deserve a new chapter as soon as possible!). However, I completely have the next bit figured out, will just have to change some of the pacing around a bit to make it work. I really want to have it uploaded before another full month passes by... That being said, I'm fairly certain that it won't be this coming week or the next, because there's a pretty large convention this weekend coming up where I live called DragonCon, and my friends and I go every year. We'll be staying in one of the hotels in downtown all 4 days. Andddd, I will be cosplaying as one of my all time favorite anime characters! Kurapika from Hunter x Hunter. I'd been working on the outfit and everything for over a month now, and it is completely finished, chains and all ;D  
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this bit, and like I said, I'm going to try to have the next part up as soon as I can. And after reading, you will find that this song was completely unavoidable xD : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cULQhvuq1Zc

The next morning seemed to come all too soon as both Armin and Eren were awoken by the sound of someone shouting.

“I told you to put that stuff in the car!”

“You never told me to do anything!”

“What are you talking about?! I clearly said, ‘hey, don’t forget to pack up the leftovers before lights out.’”

“No, you were too busy laughing about those stupid stories last night and drinking your piss beer to think this far ahead!”

At this point, Armin and Eren had crawled out from their tent to get a look at what was going on. Everyone else had apparently done the same.

In the middle of the campsite, trash was strewn about in all directions. All the food they had left was torn apart and devoured by some sort of animal. Or a group of animals. There in the middle of it all stood Erwin and Levi, both of them red in the face and furiously glaring at each other.

“I know what I said. Your problem is that you get too wrapped up in sulking that you don’t pay attention to what anyone tells you!” Erwin fired back.

“And your problem is that you think I actually give a shit about what you think!” Levi viciously countered.

At this, Mikasa had stepped between both of them in an attempt to defuse the situation.

“Look, no matter who was told what, it was all of our responsibility to make sure the food was put away. So there’s no point in arguing about it when we just need to clean it up.”

“Fine by me,” Levi said in a low voice as he began to walk away.

Erwin simply stared at the trash on the ground before bending down to start picking it up.

Eren put a hand up to cover his mouth as he whispered into Armin’s ear, “Ooh, trouble in paradise.”

“Eren,” Armin said a bit disapprovingly as he pulled away.

He didn’t feel right making fun of other people’s problems and didn’t want Eren doing it either.

Eren’s tone suddenly took on a seriousness about it, “Promise me that we’ll never be like that.”

Armin gazed at him before smiling, “I promise we will NEVER be like that.”

Then a thought suddenly occurred to him.

“Wait, do you think they’re… together?”

Eren shrugged, “Maybe. Would explain a lot. Or maybe only one of them is interested and the other just wants to be friends. An unrequited love sort of thing.”

Armin didn’t have long to ponder this line of thought because a voice suddenly snapped them back to the task at hand.

“Hey! That means you two as well!”

Mikasa pointed back at the disaster area with her free hand as the other was holding a torn up bag of some sort.

The group spent the better part of an hour making sure they got all the trash cleaned up before they could even start to pack up for the return to the city. Finally, however, they had gotten all the tents and everything else stored in the two cars and the time had come to leave their weekend getaway behind.

“Alright everyone,” Mikasa began to address them all, “it’s time to get back. I just wanted to thank you all for an enjoyable trip, despite the few… mishaps we experienced.”

She gazed not so subtly at Eren with these last words while Eren suddenly became very interested in a low hanging branch.

“Well it was a pleasure,” Erwin replied, “but we may need to stop in a nearby town to get some food for lunch. Since our breakfast was lost before we could have a chance to enjoy it.”

Like Mikasa, Erwin focused his attention on Levi at the end of his sentence. Levi, unlike Eren, instead returned the gaze with narrowed eyes and a look of intense ire.

“Oh, I know just the place!” Hange excitedly proclaimed. “I’ve been up this way once before with my family, and we stopped at a local restaurant in the town that we pass through on the way back to the highway. It shouldn’t take us long to get there!”

“Sounds good to me,” Mikasa said as she turned to head to her car. “We’ll follow your car then, Erwin, since Hange knows the place we’re going. I just need to checkout at the gate first.”

“That’s fine. We can wait up ahead for you guys,” he said as began to head to his car with the other half of the group.

Soon, they had all gotten into the two cars and were on their way. It didn’t take long for Mikasa to inform the rangers that they were leaving and then begin to follow Erwin’s car down the winding road that snaked down the mountain.

Armin sat in the back again and gazed out the window at the orange leaves that fell from the trees as they drove. He felt a tinge of sorrow at having to leave this place behind. It really was beautiful, and was a great break from all the schooling back at the university.

If there was one thing he knew, however, it was that all good things eventually come to an end.

True to her word, Hange’s restaurant didn’t take long to get to at all. Once they had driven down the mountain, they were only on the main road for twenty minutes or so before they had reached the town, the restaurant lying just a block away from the turnoff.

When they all had finally made their way inside, Armin saw that it was a country style buffet. It had a decent amount of people inside, most likely the post-church crowd, and the smell was actually quite pleasant. He didn’t really know what exactly he had been expecting, but bacon, eggs, ham, and some home-style biscuits sounded pretty good right then.     

After being shown to two tables that were next to each other, the group went their separate ways to load up their plates. Having picked out all that he wanted, Armin sat at one of the tables where the water he ordered was waiting for him along with everyone else’s drinks.

Eren took the seat beside him while Mikasa sat across from Eren. Jean and Marco sat with Hange at the other table. It seemed that Krista would be sitting next to Mikasa, but just then, another figure appeared at her side.

It was Levi.

When he sat next to Mikasa, she looked a bit surprised but said nothing. Erwin and Krista both had come over now, and while Krista simply sat next to Hange, Erwin looked a bit unsure of where to go.    

Levi took it upon himself to assist Erwin in making a decision.

“I’d suggest sitting at the other table; this one is already overcrowded with plates.”

Erwin’s expression darkened, but he said nothing. He simply turned and walked to the other table, pulling up an unused chair.

Levi began busying himself with his plate, which had a generous portion of pasta topped with peppers, and another plate with nothing but pastries and assorted sweets.

Mikasa eyed him subtly, but didn’t speak as she too began to help herself to her lunch.

Armin wondered if everything was going to be alright between Levi and Erwin, but thought it best that no one was going to pry.

However, Eren seemed to have not gotten the memo.

“So what was all that about?” he asked tactlessly.

Levi continued to twirl some of the pasta noodles around his fork before he answered Eren’s question.

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean. I simply directed him to a table with more room on it.”

As he put the fork into his mouth, he finally looked up at Eren, who still sat there looking unconvinced.

He swallowed before adding, “For once, your gluttony actually paid off.”

At this, everyone at the table looked to Levi.

“My… gluttony?” Eren asked slowly while looking down to his several plates all filled with various foods.

“Mhm…” Levi answered wordlessly, having taken another bite of pasta.

Armin began to see what was really going on.

_What Erwin said to him earlier must have really hurt him more than he’s letting any of us know_ , he thought to himself.

Eren, however, was successfully diverted from this line of thought by Levi’s remark.

“Well you’re one to talk,” he said defensively, “you have a plate full of nothing but sweets! At least I have variety.”

Levi scoffed. “I happen to enjoy sweet things. It mixes well with the spicy flavors of the other foods.”

“Ah, so you’re into sweet and spicy things, huh?” Eren chided as he took a sip of coffee.

“There’s no sweetener in that? At all?” Levi asked, a bit of incredulity detectible in his tone.  

As Eren finished his sip with a contented sigh, he answered, “Nope. Sweet is alright, but in the end, I think I really prefer the more bitter things. Makes me feel more… well, more.”

Armin couldn’t help but notice how strange the conversation was. It was as if there was more to it than what was actually being said. Subtle undertones.

He started to turn his attention back to his plate when he caught a glimpse of Mikasa looking at him. As quickly as he noticed, however, she averted her gaze and returned to her food as well. Still, the expression on her face seemed strange. Almost grim in a way.

The lunch went on without any other incidents, and when they all were waiting for the checks to be distributed by the server, the talk turned to the approaching Halloween festivities.  

“I really don’t feel like having another party at my place,” Mikasa was saying.

“That’s fine,” Levi replied in his usual nonchalant tone. “There’s actually a house party going on at the other university up in Midtown. Erwin and I know some people there.”

“Will you two be going together then?” Mikasa asked in her best inconspicuous manner.

“I don’t care if he goes or not, but I’ll be there.” Levi said stiffly.

When they had all paid, they made their way back to the cars. As Armin climbed into the back of Mikasa’s, he wondered how the car ride for the others would be. At least Hange would be there to lighten the mood a bit.

The journey back to the city was much like the trip to the campsite, except now the rolling hills and farmland were replaced first by towns that were closer and closer together, two lane highways that became major interstates, and vistas of trees that morphed into towering buildings.

Even though the music was a bit loud, as was Eren and Mikasa’s resumed bickering, Armin didn’t notice that he had drifted off to sleep until he opened his eyes and saw that they were back in the middle of the urban sprawl where they attended school.

Once they had parked in the parking deck at the dorms, they all gathered up their respective belongings and headed back to their dorm rooms.

After Eren and Armin said their goodbyes to Mikasa and Krista, they walked together back to Armin’s dorm room he shared with Jean.  

“You sure you don’t want to drop your things off at your place first?” Armin asked Eren.

“Nah, it’s cool. I’d rather spend the whole day with you,” Eren replied.

Armin laughed, “You can still spend the day with me and drop your bag off too, dummy.”

“No, it has to be every second!” Eren exclaimed.

Armin narrowed his eyes. “I think I know what you’re up to…”

Eren gestured to himself with a bewildered look, “Who, me?”

“Yes, you. I’ve got you completely figured out.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Eren replied in an innocent sounding tone.

“Mhm, sure. You’re counting on the fact that Jean will be like you and head to yours and Marco’s dorm first.” Armin continued, unconvinced by Eren’s act.

They had arrived now at Armin’s dorm, and sure enough, it was empty. Jean was most likely with Marcos.

“Well, so what if that’s what I want? I just want to be able to cuddle you without interruptions. Is that so wrong?” Eren asked.

“Are you sure you only want to cuddle? Because I feel like you’re on a mission…” Armin trailed off as he dropped his bag to the floor in his room.

“Armin, what do you take me for?” Eren asked in a mock-hurt sort of voice as he too dropped his bag on the ground and then laid on his side on Armin’s bed in a suggestive manner.

Armin continued to look at him with suspicion.

They stared at each other for a few more moments before Eren decided to drop the act and exclaim as he threw himself backwards onto the sheets, “Ok, fine. Let’s _fuck_.”

“Eren!” Armin shouted. “No! Not today... Jean could be back at any time, and besides, wasn’t yesterday enough for a little while?”

Eren groaned, “I just can’t stop thinking about you. Is that a bad thing?”

Armin thought about it for a moment. He really wasn’t used to this sort of attention. Sure, the time that he and Eren had been together had been great, and he was really starting to feel completely comfortable with him, but this… This was entirely different.

Armin frowned, “It’s not bad… It’s just that…”

He trailed off again as Eren regarded him with an unsure look.

“I don’t think we should rush these sorts of things. I’m sorry; I just think that we can show our affection in other ways. At least for now. Although I’m not saying that yesterday was a mistake, it honestly was fantastic, but let’s just-“ Armin was interrupted before he could completely finish his rambling.

“Armin, it’s ok,” Eren said softly. “If you don’t want to, we don’t have to. I’d never twist your arm over something like this. You mean too much to me.”

Armin stopped, his mouth still slightly open, “Really?”

“What sort of question is that?” Eren asked rhetorically as he sat up on the bed. “Of course really. Besides, I think it’s extremely respectable of you to stand up for yourself and say that you aren’t completely comfortable with the pace of things. A lot of people would stay silent just because they think they’re making the other person happy.”

Armin smiled and walked over to the other boy, who opened his arms to him.

“I knew from the moment I met you that there was something special about you,” Armin whispered as he slid into Eren’s warm embrace.

“Why, did my natural good looks and boyish charm give it away?” Eren asked as he tried to nuzzle into Armin’s neck.

Armin, however, pulled away with an unamused expression. “Why do you always do that?”

“Do what?” asked Eren as he looked into Armin’s blue eyes.

“Ruin a perfectly good moment,” Armin said, although his tone let on that he wasn’t entirely aggravated.

Eren smiled before pulling Armin’s face toward him, “I don’t think anything could ruin this moment.”

They kissed for a while before putting on some music and simply enjoying each other’s company. Eren had more songs that he wanted to introduce to Armin, and Armin was more than happy to listen to them. When the sun had finally set, Eren decided it was time to head back to his own dorm room.

“Let’s stop in the courtyard on the way,” he said. “It’s a clear night, and I could go for a little stroll in the fresh air.”

“You didn’t get enough of that this weekend?” Armin asked, a bit amused.

“I could never have too much of the outdoors,” Eren responded while he put his bag over his shoulder.

The two of them walked through the hallways and down to the ground floor before stepping out into the courtyard that was in the center of the dorms. The air was quite cold, and there was a wind blowing that didn’t make it any better.

It was then that Armin realized he really should have brought his coat.

They walked to one of the benches that wasn’t in the path of direct light from the lamps that were spread out throughout the area. Other than a few people quickly walking from one end to another, they were the only ones there.

Eren sighed, “Ah, I love fall. And winter and the holidays are just around the corner.”

Armin tried unsuccessfully to hide a shiver, “Yeah.”

Eren looked over to him and noticed that not only was Armin not wearing any sort of jacket, but he was in a short-sleeved shirt no less.

“Armin!” he exclaimed. “Where’s your hoodie?”

“Apparently left forgotten back in my room…” he said, now visibly shaking.

Eren began to stand up, “Come on, you’ll get sick. Let’s just go on to my room and I’ll loan you one of mine. I’d offer one that’s in my bag, but this is all I’ve got.”

“No, it’s ok. I know you wanted to sit out here for a little bit,” Armin attempted to reassure the other boy. “Besides, I have an idea.”

Eren was about to protest when Armin slid his arms up the sleeves of Eren’s sweater, pressing himself into Eren’s chest and resting his head upon him.

“Armin…” Eren said quietly.

“There,” Armin sighed contentedly, “now I’m warm.”

After a moment, Eren finally relaxed and smiled down at the blonde who was resting against him, sharing his body heat.

“I guess I could learn to like the cold if this is the way that I could spend it,” Armin breathed against Eren.

“You don’t like the cold?” Eren asked him.

Armin shook his head, “Not at all. You couldn’t tell from this weekend?”

Eren thought about it for a moment, “I guess… But what about all the holidays? You can’t tell me you don’t like Christmas.”

Armin was quiet for a moment before answering, “Honestly, I really don’t…”

Eren looked down at him, shocked at what he was hearing.

“You really don’t like Christmas? Why?”

Armin pulled in just a little closer to Eren before saying in a very soft, rather despondent tone of voice, “I… don’t really want to talk about it right now. I’m sorry. I just don’t like that time of year.”

Eren was silent for a moment before replying, “Well, alright. I guess not everyone has the same favorite holiday.”

They cuddled together for a little while longer before it really was time to go back to each other’s rooms. Classes would resume early the next morning after all.

As Armin slid back out of Eren’s sweater, Eren said, “I appreciate you staying out here even without a jacket or anything. Although I’m beginning to think it was all a ploy just so you could try that little maneuver…”

Armin laughed a little, “Maybe it was. But no, I really do wish I had thought ahead.”

“Hey, I wasn’t complaining,” Eren said with a smile before leaning in to give Armin a kiss goodnight.

As their lips parted, Eren asked, “See you tomorrow morning?”

“Of course,” Armin returned with a smile.

“Sweet,” Eren said happily as he gathered his bag back onto his shoulder. “Now get back to your room before you end up sick and flaking out on me.”  

Armin crossed his arms as he started to shiver again, even colder than he was before now that he was lacking Eren’s warmth.

“G’night,” he said to Eren as he began to head back to his room.

“Night,” Eren called back.

Before long, Armin had arrived back to his dorm room. He noticed that the kitchen light was on, even though he knew he turned it off before he and Eren had left. Jean must have finally returned.

_I guess we had nothing to worry about as far as being interrupted goes_ , Armin thought as he turned the light off and headed for his bedroom.  

He was glad that Eren didn’t mind what he was saying earlier. But then again, it was Eren, so he shouldn’t be surprised, right?

He eventually climbed into his bed, burying himself under the blankets to keep warm, and replayed all the events of the weekend. He could think of no better one that had ever preceded it. He also noticed that Eren’s scent was still detectable on his pillow from all the times they had spent lying there together. He counted himself thankful for this and breathed in deeply before finally drifting off to sleep.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I hope you liked it! It was a very cutesy sort of chapter, but it really is setting up for numerous different things to come. As always, let me know what you think. Is there anything you want to see more of? Less of? This is my first time writing anything like this, so I really would welcome that sort of feedback. It will help me write better and stop second guessing myself!  
> Well, I shall return after the con (and maybe even post some pics of my cosplay. This would be a time that a Tumblr account would come in handy... I'll think about it). Until next time!


	12. Livin' Life Like We're the Only Ones That Know We're Famous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter ended up being way longer than I originally had intended. I just couldn't stop adding in little things, and soon, the whole thing blossomed into one of the longest yet. A few new characters are introduced, with some who will go on to play a very significant role in this tale. It's all really starting to shape up, and I'm excited to keep writing it! There is much, much more to come. And here is the accompanying song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DvvoheXWdQ  
> Enjoy!

A couple of weeks had gone by before Armin and Eren found themselves in what had become an increasingly familiar situation. Mikasa was sitting across from them at a table in the university library and next to her was Levi. The dark-haired boy had been accompanying her much more often lately, usually without Erwin.

Things always ended up going the same way, however.

“You’re serious. You are actually serious. How can one person be so intellectually incompetent?” Levi’s annoyed voice had been rising in volume for the past couple of minutes.

“Me?! You’re supposed to be a TA and you really believe all that garbage?” Eren shot back.

“It’s fact. You’re just buying into all the recent political crap and think that centuries of history suddenly don’t matter!”

“That pansy ass place never mattered, and neither does its language!”

“You do not call France pansy, you stupid bastard!”

Armin had never seen Levi so worked up before. Other than when he and Erwin had their little spat back on the camping trip, but that was more subtle rage. This was as if the calm, cool façade that he tried so hard to always maintain had completely fallen; his emotions and inner thoughts were completely laid bare for them all to see. It was actually a bit disconcerting, and Armin couldn’t help but feel a twinge of embarrassment for the usually sullen older male. 

Eren, by contrast, only seemed to be spurred on.

“Aren’t TAs supposed to be objective in regards to academic pursuits? What’s with all this love for ‘La France’ anyway?” he put on a mock French accent when saying the name of the country.

“It is objective fact that many of the things that we enjoy today stem directly from French culture. And they aren’t an embarrassment militarily! They are one of the few nuclear-capable countries in the world, and not to mention they fought off the most powerful nations on earth back in their day. Does the name Napoleon mean anything to you?” Levi ended his rant with a serious question.

Eren responded with a much less so answer.

“Ahh, oui oui, so I see. Are you his long-lost descendent or something? You’re definitely alike in the height department.”

While Levi bristled at this, Mikasa simply continued to read her book. While before she had attempted to intervene every time things ended up this way, the past week had seen her all but give up and just wait for things to calm down on their own. Or until something forced them to calm down.

“Napoleon was actually 5’7, which is average today and still considered to be on the taller side in his day,” Levi said through gritted teeth.

Eren smirked and calmly replied, “Well, looks like you have quite a bit of measuring up to do then.”

Levi actually trembled slightly with fury, rose from his seat, and shouted, “You- you… BRAT!”

As Eren’s eyes widened a bit, partly from amusement and partly from the realization that he perhaps ought to cease his digs on the other male, a sharp “SHHH!” grabbed all of their attention.

One of the librarians had walked out from a row of books and looked extremely displeased with all of the shouting. With her pointed nose, hair tightly pulled back in a bun, and old fashioned spectacles on her face, she looked rather hawkish. And not someone to cross.

Mikasa had put her book down at this most recent exchange and gestured to the librarian that they were sorry. She then turned her attention to Eren and Levi as the older woman disappeared back behind another row of books.

“Ok, I really didn’t want to waste my time or energy by getting involved with you two anymore, but you need to keep it down!” she hissed. “I’ve seen what happens when that lady gets really angry, so I’m doing you both a favor right now.”

Levi reluctantly took his seat again, saying nothing, while Eren said quietly, “Sorry. I should’ve known the motherland would be such a tender topic for our resident Frenchie here.”

Levi narrowed his eyes menacingly and seemed to be about to say something, but was cut off by Mikasa first.

“Enough! If you two can’t stop this constant bickering, then I’m not coming out tonight.”

This snapped Eren back to a more serious state of mind, “But Mikasa, it’s Halloween! We’ve been looking forward to this for weeks now, you have to come!”

“It’s also a Tuesday night. Why this little party wasn’t just thrown on Saturday is beyond me,” she said, shaking her head.

“Because then it wouldn’t be Halloween…” Eren said softly.

“Also, from what Erwin’s been saying, this party is going to be anything but ‘little’,” Levi corrected her.

“Well, I’m not going to be drinking,” Mikasa said as she closed her book and began to gather her belongings. “Someone needs to drive you fools back to the dorms.”

“And this is why we love you; always looking out for us!” Eren said, trying to be endearing.

Mikasa simply scowled and stood up to leave, Levi following suit.

“We’ll leave at 9 o’clock. And we’re not staying past 2 AM, so be ready to head back,” she instructed them as she left.

“Understood, sir!” Eren exclaimed as he stood up and snapped to attention, his hand in a salute. He then called after Levi, “Au revoir, Frenchie!”

Levi turned back and said under his breath, “Va te faire foutre!”

Eren then turned to Armin and asked, “What do you think that meant?”

Armin simply shook his head as he got up and said with a sigh, “Nothing good, Eren…”

As the two of them left the table, Eren pulled Armin down one of the aisles of books.

“Eren-“ Armin began to ask, but was stopped when the other boy turned around and pushed him up against the bookshelf.

Green eyes gazed at Armin and a low voice said, “So, come here often?”

“Yeah… It’s the school library,” Armin said slowly, slightly confused at what was happening.

Eren frowned a bit and looked down, “Hm. I guess I could’ve come up with something a bit better than that.”

“Eren, what is this?” Armin asked, but as the blonde began to step forward from the bookshelf, a soft hand pushed him back up against it.

“Non, you stay right zer,” Eren said in his best French accent.

Armin started to get a bit annoyed by this. Just what was Eren trying to do, in a library of all places?

“Eren, what in the world-“ he started to say, his voice betraying his annoyance.

“Non, not ze world. Right here,” the brunette said, continuing his accent.

Armin simply stared at him, his forehead wrinkled in puzzlement.

They both continued to look at each other for a moment before Eren finally dropped the act and stood back.

“Nothing?” he asked.

“Eren. I don’t even know what that was,” Armin said, still as confused as ever.

“I just thought that with all that talk from Frenchie about the French language being the romantic language of the world that I could try it out. Obviously I was correct with everything I was saying earlier then,” Eren explained.

“Eren,” Armin began, “when Levi said that French was a romantic language, he meant that it is in a group of languages in the ‘Romance’ family… Like Spanish and Italian. It means they are directly descended from Latin. You know, the language of the ‘Romans’?”

Eren stared dumb-founded at Armin for a moment before saying, “Bullshit.”

Armin frowned and sighed while he looked away, “No, Eren. It’s true.”

Eren stood there for another moment with his mouth slightly open before saying, “Well I’ll be damned…”

Armin smiled slightly and patted the other boy’s arm, “It’s ok. If I would’ve known that that was what started the whole argument off originally, I would have told you then.”

Eren looked at him, a slightly disappointed expression on his face.

Armin continued to smile before saying, “I do hate it when you do that though.”

“Do what?” Eren asked.

“Antagonize Levi. He gets so worked up.”

A sly smile crept over Eren’s face then, “You love it.”

“I do not!” Armin protested.

Eren shook his head and continued to smile as he began to edge closer to the blonde, “No, you enjoy watching his composure crumble.”

“No, I really do hate it,” Armin continued, although he could never admit that sometimes it was a bit gratifying to see the older male knocked down a peg or two, especially when he was being particularly arrogant.

Eren was now inches from Armin, “You may hate it, but you love it at the same time.”

“That’s not actually poss-“ Armin attempted to contradict him, but was silenced when soft lips closed over his own.

They kissed for a few moments before a noise got their attention. The librarian from earlier was putting books on a shelf in the row next to them.

“Let’s go get ready for tonight,” Armin said hurriedly. 

“Yeah,” Eren agreed, “I don’t want to get carried off by ol’ Hawkeye over there.”

Armin hushed him as they walked out from the aisle, and as they headed to leave the library, had the strangest sensation that she was eyeing them.  

They split up when they got back to the dorms so that they could both get ready for the night ahead. As Armin got out of the shower and dried his hair, he found that he still had a couple of hours until they were to leave with Mikasa. As they had been discussing the week before, he began to head to Eren’s dorm to put their costumes on.

Before he could make it out the door, however, he was stopped by Jean who had come out of his room.

“Going out for the night?”

“Yeah,” Armin answered. “Eren and I are going to that Halloween party at the school over in Midtown. Mikasa is driving. Feeling better?”

Jean put an arm over his stomach as he replied, “Some, but I don’t think I’m out of the woods yet. By the way, I sort of ran out of toilet paper today, so I took what you had left. Sorry…”

“It’s alright,” Armin said as he opened the door to the hallway, “I’ll pick some more up tomorrow. It should be fine. Glad you’re feeling better.”

“Thanks,” said Jean. “Have fun. Keep an eye on Eren; I think he enjoys getting that Levi guy so steamed up at him.”

Armin rolled his eyes as he walked out of the dorm room, “Whatever gave you that idea…”

Before long, he had arrived at Eren’s room and knocked on the door. As it opened, he was greeted by Eren, who had already gotten most of his costume on.

“Couldn’t wait for me?” Armin asked as he stepped inside.

“This way we’ll have more time to work on yours!” Eren replied enthusiastically before baring his fake fangs and adding, “And I’ll also have more time to suck your blood, mwuhahaha!”

Armin raised an eyebrow, “Oh, is that what you want to suck?”

Eren ceased his act and actually looked rather surprised at what he had just heard.

“Well damn, I do believe I’ve had some sort of an influence on you.”

Armin walked past him to the bedroom where his outfit would be, “Yes, and not a good one.”

Eren narrowed his eyes after the blonde, but couldn’t help but smile too. The two of them walked over to Eren’s bed where a few clothing items lay sprawled out upon it. There was a fancy shirt, an equally fancy vest and pants, a cape, and a rather large hat that almost looked like it may have once belonged to Zorro.

“Tell me again where you got all this stuff?” Armin asked as he looked over all of the items.

“Well the shirt, pants, and vest were a part of the suit I wore to prom,” Eren explained. “The cape and hat were from a… play I was in back in high school…”

Armin nodded and chuckled slightly, “I don’t know what’s harder to imagine, you in a play or you at prom.”

“Hey!” Eren shouted in indignation. “I’ll have you know that I was the star of that play, and I got a standing ovation! And at prom I was the Prom King.”

“Really?” Armin asked, not sure whether to believe all of what was just said.

Eren looked away before answering, “No… But you don’t need to rub it in.”

Armin smiled sympathetically and touched Eren’s arm, “Sorry, I didn’t mean it in a condescending way. I’m sure you looked amazing at prom.”

Eren laughed slightly, “Yeah, maybe. But I didn’t go with anyone. Well, Mikasa came back home to accompany me, but I think she just did it so that I wouldn’t have gone alone, so that doesn’t really count. She might be a real buzzkill sometimes, but she’s always been there for me. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Eren then looked at Armin directly, “Don’t tell her I said that.”

Armin smiled and he drew a line over his mouth, “My lips are sealed.”

“The play was even worse,” Eren went on to say. “I wasn’t the lead, but I still got everyone to notice me. I had a minor part, a mysterious character in one scene. I only had two lines. And not only did I forget them both, but as I turned one way I ended up knocking over half of the set. That was the end of my theater career.”

Armin contained himself enough to get out, “Well, at least you were memorable.”

A look of disapproval was shot at him after this, but Eren started to laugh too.

“Yeah, I guess there’s that.”

They both spent most of the time they had before they would need to meet Mikasa downstairs getting Armin properly dressed up in his costume and putting the final touches on Eren’s own. When they were finished, they walked into Eren’s bathroom to look at themselves in the mirror.

“What exactly am I supposed to be anyway?” Armin asked as he looked himself over.

“What do you mean?” Eren questioned back, before adding in a Spanish accent. “You’re _El Caballero_!”  

Armin whirled his cape around a bit, “It does seem pretty mysterious.”

Eren turned his head to one side, “And the eye shadow really makes it.”

“You’re not so bad-looking yourself,” Armin replied with a grin.

Eren wrapped an arm around him, “I would really show you what I think of you, but we’d probably have to redo our costumes. Plus we have to meet Mikasa.”

“Oh yeah, we should get going,” Armin said quickly. “It’s almost 9.”

The two of them hurried down to the parking garage where they would meet Mikasa at her car. She, Erwin, and Levi were already there.

“Well, look at that,” she said while holding up her wrist watch. “Right on time. I thought we’d be waiting here for at least twenty minutes.”

“I can be on time,” Eren remarked in annoyance. “I’m not always slow.”

“Oh, is that so? You could have fooled me,” Levi said in a snide manner.

“Nope, not starting this again,” Mikasa said, holding up her hand in front of Eren who was about to shoot back with some sort of insult. “I swear, if you two go at it again, we are coming straight back here.”

Eren rolled his eyes as he got into her car, “Yes, mother.”

Armin sat next to him and then realized that Eren was about to undergo a trial that would really test his self-discipline. Erwin had sat in the front seat, being as he was much taller, which left Levi to sit on Eren’s other side.

This did not go unnoticed by Eren.

“You know, even with 5 people packed into this car, it’s still quite roomy,” he started to say as they pulled out of the garage. “It’s almost as if there wasn’t a third person back here at all.”

Levi slowly nodded with a faint smile on his face, “Yes, you’re little friend is easy to overlook isn’t he?”

Eren jerked his head to face Levi while Mikasa tapped her breaks a little forcefully. Not wanting to see whether Mikasa had been bluffing or not, Eren settled on giving Levi a glaring look instead.

Armin wasn’t going to lie; being in the crossfire of Eren and Levi’s battles wasn’t all that fun.

Before long, they had pulled up to the place where the party was at. It was obviously a frat house of some sort, not far from where the main campus of that university was, but still in a remote enough location as to be surrounded by quite a few trees. The skyscrapers of the city twinkled above them in one direction.

As they all climbed out of the car, they were immediately met by the sounds of loud house music and the raucous clamoring of a large number of people.  

Armin hesitated for a moment, “Not quite like Mikasa’s party a while back…”

Eren gently touched the blonde’s arm before saying, “Don’t worry, this sort of thing will be my first time too. Come on.”

They all walked up the steps to the entrance of the house where Levi and Erwin started talking to a couple of guys who must have been the ones who invited them. One had blonde hair that was tied in a bun at the back. He also had a little beard he seemed to be growing. The other guy, strangely enough, had his light brown hair styled in a way that resembled Levi’s, although not quite as kempt. He also appeared a bit older, but whether this was due to a life of stress that gave him premature wrinkles or if he actually was indeed much older than all of them, Armin didn’t know.

They seemed to be friendly enough though.

“Ayeeee, look who’s here!” the blonde one exclaimed while grabbing a hold of Erwin’s hand. “And you even brought some friends! Welcome!”

He gestured to Armin, Eren, and Mikasa and they all took turns introducing themselves. It turned out that the blonde guy was named Eld, and he and his friend, Oluo, were the ones who threw the party. They appeared to know Erwin and Levi quite well.

The darkened house they stepped into was illuminated solely by blacklights. All of the lighter colored clothing lit up underneath them, as well as quite a bit of glow-in-the-dark paint that decorated tables, walls, and other furniture. While there were people both in and out of costumes, everyone was wearing some kind of glow stick accessory, be it as a bracelet, necklace, or even fastened together as a crown.

The music was deafening, but the smell was what really grabbed Armin’s attention. It was rather foul, almost sour, and he’d smelt it before at other social gatherings. It was much more pronounced here, however.

It did not go unnoticed by Levi either.

“It’s very… loud,” he half shouted to Eld.

Yeah, but the music is great, right?!” Eld yelled back.

If Levi hadn’t been standing right at Armin’s shoulder, he never would have heard him, “I wasn’t talking about the noise…”

“A costume AND glow party?” Erwin asked over all the noise. “You guys are trying to show out just because we’re here.”

Oluo laughed, “No, no. This is tame compared to our usual parties. Anything would be ‘showing out’ if it was compared to the sort of stuff you guys do in downtown.”

The four older males continued their banter while Armin and Eren ventured further into the house. Amidst the throng of people who stood in their way, there was a table full of an assortment of different alcoholic drinks.

Eren picked up a clear bottle of some sort, “It’s not rum, but it’s in some sort of obscure language…”

Armin looked at the bottle, “Eren, it’s in Spanish.”

Eren grabbed the bottle back, “I don’t need that sort of backtalk right now.”

Armin rolled his eyes and tried to hide a smirk while Eren did his best to find two clean cups in the dark. Once he did, he filled them with the mysterious clear liquid that had a faintly sweet smell to it.

Armin put his cup to his nose before saying, “I think this is tequila.”

“What would you know about that?” Eren asked before he took a sip and then grimaced intensely.

“Well, you all but just confirmed it,” Armin said before taking a sip of his own.

His reaction afterwards was more or less the same as Eren’s.

They began to go even further into the house when they neared the door that led to the back deck.

“Hey, where’d Mikasa go?” asked Armin.  

Eren turned around to look back into the house, “I don’t know, I thought she was following us. I guess she decided to chat some people up.”

As they made their way outside, there was an empty spot along one side of the deck where they decided to stand at.

All of it was a bit overwhelming.

The amount of people, the noise, the sights, and not to mention the alcohol they had gotten their hands on.

A group further along had positioned themselves in a circle and were passing a lit object between them. Armin didn’t need to think hard about what it was; obviously it was one of the sources of the pervasive smell he had noticed.

“Quite the gathering, huh?” Eren asked after taking another sip of his drink.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Armin replied.

He took another sip as well, but the burn had really started to already get to him.

“We didn’t grab any chasers,” he remarked.

“Oh yeah, I guess we’re going to need them if this is what we’ve got,” Eren said as he peered into his cup. “I’ll be right back.”

Without another word, he set back off into the house, leaving Armin alone. Armin continued to observe his surroundings. Everyone appeared so at ease, even people who were being introduced.

_I wish I could be that calm and willing to interact with strangers_ , he thought to himself.

He listened to them talk about their school; they apparently had a few more “opportunities” in certain business and technical fields than the school he and Eren attended, which was more of a research university. Most of them apparently came from quite a bit more money than he did as well.

“I actually just got back from a deep sea fishing trip with my father and grandfather last week,” one of them in a devil’s outfit was saying. “I had to miss a couple days of class, but my professor understood. Apparently he does the same every spring.”

“My uncle is actually taking me to Paris next summer!” a girl dressed partly as a mummy chimed in. “I can’t wait; I’ve always wanted to see Versailles!”

Armin smiled to himself. They may sound pretentious, but wouldn’t anyone want to be able to say the things they were saying? If only his parents…

His thoughts were interrupted when one of them called over to him.

“Hey, you’re not here alone, are you?”

Caught off guard, Armin fumbled with his words for a moment, “N-no! I’m here with a few friends, but I don’t know where they went. W-well, one of them just went to-“

Before he could finish, the girl said, “Well, you look alone now, so come join us!”

She stepped aside and gestured for Armin to walk over.

As he did so, the circle’s conversation continued like it had never been interrupted. He sipped on his drink some more, trying to calm down, and kept glancing over his shoulder for Eren.

“You’re a jittery one, aren’t you?”

“Huh?” Armin turned to find the girl staring at him with a quizzical look on her face. Her brown eyes were quite striking.

“You keep acting like you’re waiting for something… bad to happen,” she said slowly. Armin noticed her hair was pretty too; it was almost a rose blonde sort of color.

“No, nothing like that,” he said with a smile. “I just don’t know what happened to my friend.”

She returned the smile and held out her hand, “Well, if it gets you to stop worrying, you can count me as a friend. My name is Petra. Named after some ancient ruin in the desert.”

“Armin,” he said, extending his hand as well. “I… don’t really know what I’m named for.”

Petra smiled and seemed to be about to say something when Eren returned at Armin’s side.

“Found chasers!”

He was holding up two blue bottles of Gatorade with a very accomplished look on his face.

“Where at?” Armin asked as he took one.

“Stop begging the question,” Eren answered before taking another sip of the tequila, which he immediately followed with the new-found Gatorade.

Armin narrowed his eyes, “Eren, that’s not at all how you use that phrase…”

Eren chose to ignore the statement and instead gestured to the people around them, “Armin, you made new friends, look at you!”

While Armin looked a bit uneasy, Petra asked, “So, who’s the vampire?”

Once Eren was introduced, they all continued to stand around talking and drinking. Someone brought the same exact tequila bottle outside, which Eren wasted no time in using to refill their cups any time they appeared low.

As the night wore on, so too did everyone’s spirits. During a rather noisy uproar from inside, they all made their way back into the house. There in the middle of the room, which had now been illuminated with light, were Levi and Erwin, singing a song that everyone was dancing to.

Well, Levi was singing while Erwin simply chimed in here or there.

It was truly a sight to behold. While the two of them carried on, Mikasa was standing not far off with Oluo and Eld; a hand to her head and a smile on her face.

The only thing that Armin could really get out of it was when Levi would sing/ shout “ça plane pour moi”.

There was one part where he seemed to notice Armin and Eren bobbing their heads along to the song, and he gestured directly at Eren and said, “Comme un grand connard.”

Eren leaned towards Armin, “I’m pretty sure that’s a lyric to the song, but I feel personally attacked.”

Other than the two of them, no one seemed to notice. When the song was over, Levi called out to everyone while he held up a bottle of what, oddly enough, seemed to be wine.

“Chantons et buvons, à ce flacon faisons la guerre!”

Armin was sure that there weren’t many, if any at all, who knew what Levi meant, but he was met with cheers and applause all the same as he chugged what was left in the bottle.

Suddenly, a voice rang out from Armin’s side, “Yeah, to small penises!”

Eren was holding up his cup with one hand while he used the other to direct his voice towards Levi.

“Eren, what the-?!” Armin exclaimed.

“Relax, we’re all thinking it,” the other boy said as he took another drink.

While some people had raised their eyebrows and walked away, Levi had a menacing look on his face.

“I see you two have made yourselves quite at ease here,” a taller guy with short blonde hair said from behind them.

“Rich dudes with too much time on their hands, what’s not to love?” Eren remarked as he turned around and did his best to stifle a burp.

The blonde smiled, but his eyes looked on in faint revulsion, “Charming.”

He turned his gaze to Armin, and it lightened considerably, “Allow me to introduce myself: Reiner. Reiner Braun.”

He held out a hand to Armin, and when Armin went to shake it, he clutched it very delicately.

Armin was rather surprised at this, but before he could figure out how to respond, Reiner had released him and gestured to another tall male nearby. This one had short dark hair in comparison.   

“This is my friend, Bertolt Hoover.”

“Pleased to meet you,” he said and shook Armin’s hand quickly.

“Armin. Armin Arlert,” Armin replied to the both of them. “And this is my friend, Eren.”

“Jaeger. Eren Jaeger,” Eren said as he held out a hand that no one took. “It’s funny because your last name is Braun. It’s German, and means brown. But you’re blonde. My last name is German too.”

Reiner narrowed his eyes and smiled, “Oh, we have an eloquent one here. Yes, I’m fluent in the language. Yours means hunter. Tell me then, are you a hunter?”

Armin felt the tension as if it were ice water in his veins. If possible, it was much more uncomfortable than even anything that usually went on between Eren and Levi.

“Depends. Should I be hunting something?” Eren said with a dark expression.

Reiner slightly laughed, “That answers my question sufficiently.”

He turned back to Armin, “Well, I’ll let you two get back to the party. I simply wanted to be friendly is all.”

As he and Bertolt turned to leave, he added, “Take care, Armin Arlert.”

The two of them vanished as quickly as they had appeared, leaving Armin to wonder what all of that was about. Although Eren cut such thinking short.

“What a bag of _dicks_.”

Armin turned to him, “Eren, you say that about a lot of people.”

“Yeah, but they really live up to the label!”

“Well, you weren’t exactly friendly either.”

Eren huffed indignantly, “What did I do?! I thought _sophisticated_ people love to talk about foreign languages!”

He then quickly turned around, “Oh shit, I lost sight of the Frog.”

“The… Frog?” Armin asked even though he already knew the answer.

“Yeah, you know, they call French people frogs,” he replied without turning around. “They love to eat those things. Or something. Hell, I don’t know, it just sounds good.”

Armin wasn’t going to ask for any further clarification, but Eren offered it anyway.

“I feel like he’s up to something. I’m not sure what… But he’s got something evil planned, I just know it.”

Just then, Mikasa found them.

“So, we’ll be leaving in less than an hour. You guys should wrap up any conversations with people you’ve met.”

Eren grabbed her by the shoulders, “Mikasa, where did Levi go?”

Mikasa looked slightly perturbed and pushed his hands off of her, “What? Look Eren, that little stunt a few minutes ago did not go unnoticed, which is why I shortened this outing by an hour-“

“Where!” Eren all but shouted.

“I don’t know! He and Erwin had some cupcakes and told me to watch over them while they went to talk to some people. But I care about those cupcakes about as much as I care about yours and Levi’s petty little-“

She wasn’t able to finish her sentence before Eren had set off for the table near where Levi and Erwin had been a few moments before.

“Has he been like this all night?” she asked.

“I think it might be the tequila…” Armin said as he looked at the small amount left in his cup.

“Oh dear lord…” Mikasa said before walking away.

Armin thought he heard Petra and the group of people he and Eren had been talking to outside and decided now was as good a time as any to say his goodbyes. As he walked outside though, he noticed that they were nowhere to be seen.

He turned to head back into the house and find Eren when three rather large guys had crowded the door, obviously extremely drunk.

“Yo, look at this one though,” one of them said.

“Uh, hi,” Armin said gingerly. “You guys live around here I assume?”

“ _Uh_ , duh,” another sarcastically replied.

_Ok_ , Armin thought to himself. _Just talk to them the way you and Eren did to those other people earlier. It was fine then, so it should be now too, right?_

“Your guys’ costumes look… cool too.”

“Bruh,” the third said, trying not to laugh. “This kid is for real. This shit is gold.”

The first one replied, “Yeah, I’m sure we look fantastic when compared to you. Did you just take an old suit, get a dumb looking hat and gay ass cape, and think it would be a costume?”

Armin stuttered, “N-no, it’s… supposed to be-“

“Looks like he tried to dress up in drag first and then put all that on to hide it,” the third said before roaring with laughter along with the other two.

They pushed past Armin out onto the deck.

Armin went back inside and when he couldn’t immediately find Eren, headed towards the bathroom. He noticed the door was slightly ajar, but when he pushed it open, a guy and a girl were sitting on the sink with their arms around each other’s heads.

Looking shocked, the girl exclaimed, “He saw us! What if Tom finds out?”

“Nah, babe, this is one of the nobodies from downtown,” the guy said as he pulled the girl out of the bathroom with him. “Who’s he going to tell?”

Armin assumed Tom was a boyfriend or someone, but didn’t really care. He closed and locked the door behind them and looked down into the sink. He willed himself to stay in control, but hot tears stung his eyes. When he looked up into the mirror, he couldn’t help but watch as they began to stream down his face, staining his cheeks black with eyeshadow as they went.

He turned the faucet on and rubbed at his eyes in an attempt to wash away the makeup, but it only made things worse. A dark smudge covered his eye sockets and cheeks now.

_I’m such an idiot_ , he thought bitterly. _This is how it’s always been, and this is the way it will always be._

He finally gathered as much composure together as he could, and then came out of the bathroom.

“Finally,” someone said, but he just kept walking.

As he neared the front door, he spotted Eren.

“Armin!” Eren called as he noticed the blonde. “Where were you? Levi apparently felt sick and needed to leave. Mikasa just left with him and Erwin. I tried to call you, but my phone is dead…”

As Armin walked up to Eren, the other boy began to notice his face.

“Armin, what happened to you?”

“Nothing,” he replied somberly. “My eyes were itching and I made the mistake of rubbing them.”

Eren didn’t seem totally convinced but continued relating to Armin what was going on, “Eld offered us a ride home, but everyone here is pretty hammered. So I figured we could just walk back. It should only take about thirty minutes from here.”

“That sounds fine,” Armin agreed. “Let’s go.”

Without another word, he and Eren walked out of the still rather loud house and into the night. The weather had actually warmed a bit from the weeks before, but it was still rather chilly. Armin pulled his cape around himself.

After they had walked a couple of blocks and could no longer hear the noise from the party, Eren finally turned to Armin.

“So are you going to tell me what’s wrong, or what?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Eren.” Armin said in a low voice, the cape still tightly clutched around him. “I’m just tired.”

“You’re trembling,” Eren said, still looking over at Armin.

“It’s cold, ok?” Armin said in an exasperated tone.

“No, not as cold as that other night, and you’re shaking more now than you were then.”

Armin finally stopped walking and faced Eren, “What do you want to hear? That I thought I had finally made some progress with myself and made new friends? That I was humiliated? That no matter what goes right in my life, something else happens to not only cancel it out, but make things exponentially worse?”

He slowed down and hung his head, “That I thought I could be like you and get to know people without it being a big deal…”

Eren slowly walked over to him, “Did some assholes make fun of you? Is that what happened?”

Armin couldn’t stop the tears now if he tried. He simply stood there, his head still turned to the ground.

“Armin, I might know people, but that doesn’t mean they like me,” Eren said softly as he put a warm arm over the other boy’s shoulder. “I mean, look at Levi. Or even Erwin. Or those two asshats from earlier. Hell, even Mikasa gets fed up with me all the time.”

He leaned in closer, wiping away a tear, “I just don’t care. As long as I have you, it’s enough.”

Armin sniffed, “Really?”

“Of course, really,” Eren went on to say. “And if any of those douchebags at that party talked down about your costume, then the real joke is on them. We just dressed up for fun. They’re stuck being the pretentious, basic, daddy-buys-me-everything, assholes that they are.”

Armin finally smiled as he looked into Eren’s endearing, green eyes, “I do believe I’ve had some sort of an influence on you.”

Eren smiled, “Yes, and only the best one.”

They kissed softly for a moment before they resumed their walk.

“I don’t care what anyone says,” Armin said as they walked. “You really can be eloquent.”

“I know, right!” Eren proclaimed to the night. “What do they know?”

They laughed to themselves.  

After a little while longer, they found themselves next to a large downtown park. Some of the streetlamps were still on, but it was mostly dark.

“Hey, this is where we studied in that tree a while back,” Eren remarked as he gazed into the deserted public space.

“And where I fell out of said tree…” Armin added.

“Let’s go!” Eren said enthusiastically.

Before Armin could say anything, the other boy was off. He headed straight for the tree they were talking about, and Armin followed behind.

Once they got there, Eren dropped down to sit up against the tree trunk.

“I figure that now may not be the best time to climb up this thing.”

“A wise decision,” Armin said as he sat next to the brunette. “Why did you want to come over here anyway?”

“What do you mean?” Eren asked. “This is our tree.”

Armin couldn’t help but smile at that last statement. He still wasn’t feeling all that great, but Eren had helped him feel a lot better than he had been.

“Besides,” Eren went on, “I like to walk around at night sometimes. There’s no one really around, and everything is so calm.”

“You walk around alone at night?” Armin asked, surprised that Eren never invited him along.

“Well, I haven’t since the first couple weeks of school. We’ve been spending a lot of time at each other’s places, so I never really thought to anymore.”

“Oh,” Armin replied as he laid his head on Eren’s shoulder.

It was rather calming to be alone out there beneath the stars and the twinkling lights of the city.

After a few minutes of mostly silence, Eren started humming a melody. It was very soothing. Right when Armin was going to ask what it was, he was shocked into further silence when Eren actually started to softly sing.

It was obviously in another language, and how Eren knew it, Armin did not know. Eren had told him that he didn’t speak any other languages besides English.

When he stopped for a moment, Armin finally asked him, “What was that?”

Eren smiled, “It’s something an old nanny of Mikasa’s used to sing. She used to look after me too when I was young. She was from Japan, and she would sing it every time I was upset about something.”

“It’s beautiful,” Armin whispered.

“I always thought so too,” Eren said quietly. “I’ve remembered the words to it, but I don’t know what they mean. Just that it’s called ‘Lullaby of Takeda’.”

“Please, don’t stop,” Armin pleaded.

Eren chuckled softly, “Ok, but I can’t sing it like she could; you’ll have to suffer with me being kind of out of tune.”

Armin simply laid his head back onto Eren’s shoulder, “It doesn’t matter to me…”

The two of them sat there a while longer, Armin listening to Eren’s song, not a soul around them. Armin was entranced by it; he never wanted this moment to end. All the people in the world could make fun of him, but as long as he could sit there in the dark and listen to Eren sing that beautiful Japanese lullaby, everything would be alright.

Armin actually felt himself start to drift off when Eren gently shook him.

“Hey, I think we should head back,” he said quietly. “It’s getting pretty late.”

Armin nodded and stood up. They both walked back out of the park and began to follow the sidewalks again that would eventually lead back to the dorms.

“Singing that actually brought back a lot of memories from when me and Mikasa were kids,” Eren said. “She’s always been there. As much as we may irritate each other, I owe her a lot.”

A faint smile crossed Armin’s face, “You’re lucky you two had each other.”

Eren put his arm around Armin as they continued their journey, “And now we have each other.”

After a little while longer, they finally got back to the dorms. It was completely devoid of any activity. Eren followed Armin back to his room to bid him goodnight.

“You know, I’m actually sort of surprised that me and Levi kept out of each other’s hair tonight,” Eren was saying at the entrance to Armin’s room.

“I thought he was planning something ‘evil’?” Armin asked.

Eren scoffed, “I guess I was just paranoid. He couldn’t-“

Just then a pained expression appeared on Eren’s face and he grabbed his stomach.

“What’s wrong?” Armin asked, worried.

“I don’t know,” Eren winced. “It feels like I’m being stabbed…”

“Do you need to lie down?” Armin stepped aside so Eren could go lay on his bed.

“No, I think I need to use your bathroom,” he said in a strained voice.

“Oh, uh, ok,” Armin gestured to the bathroom.

Eren hurried in, but before he closed the door, he said, “I’m really sorry for what’s about to happen in here.”

Armin smiled sympathetically, “It’s ok, just… let me know if you need anything.”

As the door closed, Armin went to lie on his bed. After their walk, he was truly exhausted now. It had been a night of ups and downs for sure.

Some time passed, but Armin still found himself awake. He hoped Eren was doing alright in there. He also wondered if Jean was feeling any better.

Jean.

Armin remembered the brief conversation they had before he left to go to Eren’s earlier.

He shot up from the bed, and just as he did so, Eren’s voice rang out from inside the bathroom.

“Um, Armin… We seem to have a… slight… situation here.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I just remembered,” Armin said quickly at the door. “Jean took the last of the toilet paper because he’d been feeling sick this week.”

“Could you go and grab some, please?” Eren asked from inside.

“Yes, hold on!”

Armin hurried off to Jean’s bathroom on the other side of the dorm room. Armin didn’t know if Jean was at Marco’s or if he was asleep, but either way, he could be of no help.

Once in the bathroom, however, Armin was mortified to see that there was no toilet paper there either.

“Oh dear…” he said quietly.

He slowly walked back to his bathroom.

“Eren…” he started to say, but the door creaked open as Eren’s face appeared.

“Ok, just pass it to me,” he said, expecting Armin to have the much-needed item.

“Eren, I’m afraid there’s none in the other bathroom either…” Armin said slowly.

“What?!” Eren exclaimed. “What am I supposed to do?!”

“I don’t know!” Armin said in the same tone of voice.

Eren returned to the toilet where he put his head in his hands.

“This is the work of that… _creature_.”

“Levi?” Armin asked a bit timidly as he peered inside.

“Yes, Levi!” Eren nearly shouted as he looked up to Armin. “Remember those cupcakes Mikasa was talking about?”

“I guess?” Armin replied.

“You know, the ones that belonged to Levi and Erwin,” Eren went on. “Anyway, I went over there to eat one, because they apparently told Mikasa to look out for them. When I couldn’t find you I… ate the other one too…”

Armin stared at him with a blank expression, “I don’t follow.”

“He did something to them. He knew I’d go for them. And when they didn’t say anything when they left with Mikasa, I figured it was just because he felt sick. But he planned this! And probably wanted this to happen to both of us on the walk back here!”

Armin considered all of this for a moment. If it were anyone else that Eren was talking about, he’d call him paranoid. But this was Levi. And the way he and Eren went after each other, it really wasn’t a stretch to see him go to these sorts of lengths to get back at Eren.

“So, you stole some cupcakes that may have had laxatives in them, ate them, and now are mad at Levi for lacing them?” Armin asked for confirmation. “The cupcakes. That were his. That you decided to be petty about and steal. And have now fallen into his own petty scheme.”

Eren nodded his head, “You understand!”

Armin looked at the other boy in silence for a moment, his green eyes staring back at him, hair disheveled, his costume virtually completely taken off, with his pants down by his ankles as he sat on the toilet.

And then began to laugh.

Eren looked surprised for a moment, but then a bit hurt.

“Don’t laugh! This isn’t funny!”

Armin’s laughter only increased.

“Hey!” Eren yelled, starting to get annoyed. “I’m the victim here! And I really don’t know what to do!”

Armin tried to speak while he continued to laugh, “I’m- I’m sorry. It’s just- so ridiculous.”

Eren glowered at him, “Well I’m glad one of us can find the humor in it.”

A minute had passed before Armin finally got his laughter under control enough to talk normally.

“Eren, really though, this one might be well-deserved. You shouldn’t steal other people’s things.”

“Well-deserved!” Eren cried out. “That Frog is the enemy! I swear, I’ll get him back for this…”

“And then what?” Armin asked. “He’ll want to get you back. And then you both escalate things until who knows where you’ll end up. And it’ll be worse than being stuck in a bathroom with no toilet paper.”

“And it’ll be worth it,” Eren said darkly.

Armin just shook his head.

“But hey, as much as I like showing off the side of my ass here, I think I need some time to myself,” Eren said.

“Alright,” Armin replied. “Since it’s so late, you can sleep with me tonight. Although… I really hope I don’t regret offering that.”

He shut the door behind him and wondered what Eren was going to do to get out of his predicament. He laid back down on his bed, and after a few minutes, drifted off to sleep this time.  

He awoke a little while later to the sound of Eren coming into his room.

“Don’t worry,” Eren said in the darkness. “I’m clean. It’s all good now.”

“How did you do it?” Armin asked groggily.

“You don’t want to know,” Eren said as he climbed into the bed.

“But-“ Armin was interrupted before he could say anything else.

“You _don’t_ want to know…” Eren said more forcefully.

Armin was too tired to question him any further, and besides, Eren was probably right; Armin really didn’t think he wanted to know anyway.

As he began to fall back asleep, Eren’s warm and comforting body beside him, Armin thought about how lucky he really was to have him. Even if he could act foolishly, which led to events like what had just happened, he truly was someone special.

Armin thought of the song Eren had sung earlier until the moment that he finally lapsed into sleep, pushing all of the other negative thoughts of the night from his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there it is! I think this chapter was more of a roller coaster than any of the ones before. I also had quite a bit of fun writing some of the parts, especially the ones showing Levi being proud of his Frenchness (I know some basic French and will provide translations below if anyone is interested). As always, please let me know what you think. I cherish every comment, truly. Until next time, mes amies.
> 
> Va te faire foutre - 'Go fuck yourself'  
> ça plane pour moi - this is actually the title of the song Levi was singing. More or less means 'that works for me'  
> Comme un grand connard - 'Like a big shithead'  
> Chantons et buvons, à ce flacon faisons la guerre - a line from a medieval French song that means 'Let us sing and drink, and make war upon this bottle' (my phrase to live by at parties, haha)


	13. True Beauty Lies on the Blue Horizon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so here is an update! This chapter is different from all the others that have proceeded it thus far. Also, I just realized that I'm posting this on Halloween, which was the theme of the previous chapter and has quite the effect on this one too. Also it is... chapter 13 :O I promise, I didn't plan any of this, haha. The song I have chosen for this one always reminds me of Halloween itself (I suppose it's just the vibe it gives off, and from where I heard it originally), so I feel it is appropriate. Also, after you read this chapter, it's a bit reflective of the mood, because this one is definitely darker than any before. Ok, here is the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZFScP4B4Q4 And Happy Halloween everyone! Don't get into the tequila like our two protagonists did ;)

A couple more weeks had passed, and Armin and Eren found themselves in the midst of Thanksgiving break in the city. Although soon it would just be Armin, for he had just learned that Eren would be going back home with Mikasa for a few days so that he could spend Thanksgiving with his family.

Having this news dropped on him like this, however, was not something he enjoyed.

“What?! You’re leaving?!” Armin cried out, “Today?!”

“I’ll be back soon though!” Eren tried to calm the other boy down. “I’ll be back by the weekend.”

His efforts proved to be in vain though as Armin threw his hands up in disbelief and began to pace.

“Eren, how could you not have told me about this? I thought we were going to spend the holiday and break together!”

“Armin, I’m sorry!” Eren apologized. “I swear, I just found out! My mom called me this morning and told me how they would be travelling over Christmas, so they really wanted me to come home for at least this holiday. Mikasa apparently talked to her last night and had agreed to take me along.”

Armin has ceased his pacing, but still looked pretty despondent over the news.

Eren walked over to him and gently took his hand, “Hey, it’s going to be fine. We’ll be reunited again in no time.”

Armin looked down, however, “It’s just that… This will be the longest we will have gone without seeing each other since we met…”

At this, Eren moved his hand to Armin’s chin and tilted his face to him, “Listen to me: it’s going to be alright. We can’t be around each other every single day, right?”

Armin frowned. Eren was right. He was acting immature by virtually throwing a tantrum over the fact that Eren would be spending the majority of the break with his family rather than with him. It was actually pretty selfish to act this way.

“You’re right,” Armin said softly. “I’m sorry. I hope you have a great time seeing your family again.”

“Hey, don’t be sorry,” Eren responded sympathetically. “It’s ok to panic a bit; you were right when you said this would be the longest we will have gone without seeing each other.”

He then reached into his pocket and held up his phone, “But that’s what these are for, right?”

Armin smiled, “Right. Just make sure you keep yours charged, ok?”

Eren held up his right hand, “On my honor, I swear it.”

Armin laughed softly and leaned in to hug the brunette, “Dork.”

They held each other for a few moments before Armin began to help Eren pack some things to take with him back home for the few days he would be gone. They had been lounging around his room all morning.

Armin found that he and Eren would alternate spending the night at each other’s dorms, while Jean and Marco did the same on opposite schedules. This left the two pairs to be completely alone with their significant others.

It was a bit strange though. They never openly acknowledged what any of them were doing, although it was blatantly obvious to the four of them what was going on. It was like an unspoken understanding. But hey, if it worked, who was Armin to question it?

Mikasa and the others only had their suspicions, but none of them ever openly commented on it. Even Levi, which was saying something.

As Armin thought about this, an idea suddenly came to him.

“Hey,” he called to Eren, who was busy stuffing a bag full of clothes, “I just thought of something.”

Eren didn’t look but continued to try to jam another shirt into the bag, “Yeah, what is it?”

“Well, we’ve been spending so much time at each other’s dorms, and Marco and Jean have been doing the same…” his voice trailed off as he continued to look at Eren.

“And?” he asked, still busy with the bag of clothes.

“And,” Armin slowly began again, “I was thinking… Maybe we could be roommates next semester.”

Eren suddenly stopped what he was doing and looked at Armin for the first time, “Roommates?”

“Well, yeah,” Armin involuntarily put a hand to the back of his head, “I mean, if you want to…”

Eren stared at him for a moment before saying, “Of course I want to.”

Armin smiled brightly, “Really?”

“Really,” Eren nodded earnestly.

“Great! We don’t have a lot of time before the deadline to request who we want to room with, but I’ll have time this week, so I’m sure-“

Armin’s rapid speech was cut short by Eren who had more or less just lunged over to him and planted a kiss on his lips.

The blonde was taken aback, but nonetheless enjoyed the interruption.

As Eren pulled away, he said softly, “I love how you always think to organize things for us. I can’t believe I didn’t think about any of that.”

“Oh,” Armin replied with just the faintest hint of shakiness to his voice, “Well, to be fair, I didn’t really think about it until now either. I guess I just sort of assumed we would have things magically work out.”

Eren nodded slowly, “Me too. I’m sure they still will.”

“I’ll fill out the form for us. If you give me your campus ID and password, I’ll do one for you too,” Armin said.

“Oh, so you can hack my account and do who knows what?” Eren laughed.

“No!” Armin exclaimed hurriedly.

“Relax!” Eren continued to laugh. “I was just joking. I’ll write it all down for you. Just promise you’ll do more than just work and filling out documents while I’m gone.”

“This won’t be work for me, I’m excited about us living together,” Armin said brightly.

Eren smiled fondly at him, “Me too.”

The two of them spent the next hour packing the last of Eren’s things and talking about the near future. They decided that since Eren’s parents would be vacationing for Christmas, he could stay with Armin at his grandfather’s house for that holiday. This served to brighten Armin’s mood even further, but soon it was time for Eren to meet Mikasa at her car and return with her to their hometown.

They awkwardly hugged and said their goodbyes to each other as she looked on, and soon enough, she and Eren had climbed into the car.

“I’ll text you when we get there to let you know we made it!” Eren called from the open window as the car began to reverse out of the parking spot.

“I’ll be up!” Armin called back.

Eren waved to him, but all too soon, the car had exited the parking garage and it and the passengers inside were lost to view, leaving Armin standing alone in the deserted deck.

He walked slowly back to his dorm, thinking over what he was to do now for the rest of the week.

 _The Roommate Selection forms!_ he thought to himself quickly.

He picked up the pace and soon was back in his room, logged in to the school’s website on his laptop, and ready to begin the work.

As night fell, he had finished filling everything out online for him and Eren, and had been listening to some music that Eren had shown him. He was alone, for as usual, Marco was with Jean.

Eren had yet to text or call him. He wanted to send a text to Eren asking if he had made it yet, but didn’t want to be bothersome so he refrained from doing so.

As he continued to sit in solitude, a nagging feeling kept growing stronger. It started in his chest; a sort of weight was pulling down on him, almost making it hard to breathe. He felt restless, like he was all dressed up with nowhere to go.

He wasn’t mad at Eren for leaving, not at all. But he was a little disappointed if he was being completely honest with himself. He could have made plans himself to go home for the holiday too. Maybe met his grandfather at the train station outside the city. But his grandfather had just recently made plans to go to an old friend’s house for the next few days.

Now he was stuck here at a school where most students had gone home. With no family. And no Eren.  

 _It’s not his fault_ , Armin thought to himself, _he didn’t know that he was leaving until today_.

He still couldn’t shake that uneasy feeling though.

Just then, he remembered something that Eren liked to do when he had things on his mind.

He quickly grabbed his shoes, a jacket, and made sure his phone had enough charge to last an hour or so. He then headed out of his dorm and down to the exit of the building.

 _A nice contemplative walk around the city should help_ , he thought optimistically.

He set out in a random direction, the sidewalks illuminated by the orange glow of the streetlights, with only a few other people around him. There were still a good number of cars out, as it wasn’t quite that late yet.

He walked down block after block, a cold breeze nipping at his face every now and then. He decided he would head towards the park where he and Eren had been a couple times before.

As he neared the park, he noticed something a bit peculiar. A car had driven past him, slowed considerably, and then took off again. It also seemed like someone had been looking at him in one of the car’s mirrors as well.

He was used to weird things happening in the city, so he continued his walk. The car had disappeared, so that was the end of it.

He arrived at the park, and in the distance he could see his and Eren’s tree. Rather than go to it though, he decided to walk the perimeter of the park instead. It just didn’t feel right to sit at the tree without Eren.

The buildings towering above looked especially nice that night. Random rooms were lit while others were dimmed. How many people were in those rooms right now? And what were they busy doing? What thoughts weighed down on them? The city around him was both abuzz with activity, but at the same time was slightly subdued.

His thoughts turned to Eren and what awaited them in the future. He really did care a great deal for him, but couldn’t help but wonder about a few things. What exactly were they? They hadn’t told anyone about their relationship yet. Even Marco and Jean were more open about what they had together now. Was he afraid that they’d be ridiculed? Everyone in the group didn’t seem like they’d be the type to mind. Even Levi.

He didn’t think that Eren was embarrassed about it, but still. What exactly was going to become of them?

 _If I have anything to do with it, we’ll be together forever_ , Armin thought determinedly.

He was lucky to have found someone so soon that meant so much to him. It almost seemed too good to be true…

Just then, his thoughts were interrupted by a noise.

There were three figures a ways away, talking amongst themselves. But they were facing Armin directly.

 _I guess a few others decided to take a walk tonight too_ , he thought, although feeling a bit uneasy.

He decided he preferred to be alone and headed towards a crosswalk on the other side of the park from which he entered.

As he neared the light, he noticed that the trio had headed towards that direction too. Almost as if they were following him…

He tried to look relaxed, but kept bouncing on his feet, his hands in his pockets.

The light changed and he headed across the street, out of the park. He looked back and saw that the three figures had increased their pace so that they could cross the street while the light still flashed for them.

 _Relax_ , Armin tried to calm himself down, _they probably have their own thing to do that’s over this way. Has nothing to do with me_.

Still, to be sure, he walked towards a side street with the intention of heading out to the other side and then making a loop to head back to the dorms. He was finished with walking the city tonight.

As he walked down the rather dark road, he pulled out his phone unconsciously. Still no word from Eren.

He decided now was a good time to hit him up.

**Hey, made it home yet?**

A minute passed and then he sent another, **Call me, I need to talk to you**

He had reached the end of the side street now and glanced behind him. No one was there.

He sighed and turned back around.

A dark silhouette of a figure stood directly in front of him, and not being able to react in time, he collided with them head-on.

“Oh! Sorry!” he exclaimed as he stumbled backwards.

The gloomy figure simply stood there before saying slowly, “Yeah, maybe you should be more alert of your surroundings rather than have your face buried in your phone, hm?”

“Right,” Armin replied shakily, “that was my fault, and I apologize. Have a good night.”

He attempted to walk around the man, but a hand caught him on the shoulder.

“Not so fast,” he said in a sinister tone. “My friends and I were out trying to find something to do tonight. Maybe you could help?”

It was then that Armin noticed that two other figures had appeared on either side of the man holding onto his shoulder. These were the three individuals from the park.

 _Oh no_... Armin thought anxiously.

“Sorry, I was just heading home. I don’t think I can help you,” he said quietly.

The grip on his shoulder tightened, “No. I think you can.”

Armin stood frozen for just a moment and then wrenched himself free from the man’s clutches. He turned and started to sprint back down the dimly lit side street he had walked, but only got a few strides in before something tripped him.

He fell to the ground face-first, his hands going out in front of him as his phone slid out of his grasp.

The three men gathered around him.

“Oh, well now that was rude,” the one who had been holding him said. “We ask for your help and you try to run off on us? That’s just not going to fly.”

“Please,” Armin said breathlessly, “I can’t help you. I’m just trying to go-“

“Go home, yeah we heard that,” the man interrupted. “But we aren’t finished with you yet.”

He walked over to Armin’s phone, which lay a few feet out of the boy’s reach.

“Kids these days,” he said condescendingly, “always on their phones. Can they even live without them?”

“Let’s find out,” one of the others said malevolently.

“No!” Armin cried as the man lifted his boot over the phone.

It came down with a crack, and the three of them laughed.

Armin could feel tears begin to sting his eyes and he attempted to get back on his feet.

A foot knocked him back down, however.

“No, I’ve grown fond of how you look down there,” the man said.

“What the hell do you guys want?” Armin asked angrily. “I don’t have any money on me. And you’ve already smashed my phone.”

One of the others then said, “I think he’s more worried about that phone than he is about himself.”

“I think you’re right,” the first said. “Let’s give him a free lesson on where his priorities should be.”

Before Armin could say anything back, a hard blow to his stomach knocked the breath out of him. He coughed and tried to regain the air that had been forced out of his lungs, but then felt the stinging sensation of another boot to his side. Then there was another. And another. And another.

It became as if this was all his life was, just a series of blows to his torso. He couldn’t think of anything else. But then in the middle of it all, he saw a pair of emerald green eyes. Eren’s eyes. Where was he? He felt as if he knew, but in that moment, all he could think of was that he was on the ground somewhere being kicked over and over. And Eren wasn’t there.

Eren could not protect him.

He didn’t know how many more moments had passed, or kicks for that matter, but another figure had suddenly appeared. He heard shouting, and then saw the newcomer begin swinging punches on the man who had initially stopped Armin. One of the others attempted to strike back, but he was met with a fist to the face which knocked him to the ground next to Armin.

There was another exchange of shouts, but then the three men who had just savagely beaten Armin regained their footing and ran off into the night.

It was over.

Armin still laid there, coughing and struggling to breathe, before a hand reached down to him. He took it and looked up at his savior.

“… Eren…?” he croaked out, absentmindedly.

A soft laugh and then a reply answered him, “The little hunter? No, I’m afraid not.”

Armin tried his best to focus on the man, but all he could really make out was short blonde hair.

As he got to his feet, he noticed another behind him. He was also rather tall, with dark hair.

Then it dawned on him.

“You’re the two guys from the Halloween party a couple weeks ago,” Armin struggled to get out.

“Shh, try to breathe,” the man whose name was Reiner from what Armin remembered said. “You took quite a beating. But don’t worry, those scumbags won’t be back. Not if they know what’s good for them.”

Armin nodded and slowly regained his breath. His entire chest and abdomen still ached though.

“But yes,” Reiner continued, “we are indeed the ones from that party. It’s lucky we were out here just now. If I may ask, what are you doing out here alone at night?”

Armin frowned and looked away, “I just wanted to clear my head. But I got a little more than I bargained for…”

“I’d say,” Reiner responded as he put a hand on Armin’s shoulder.

In comparison to the hand that had been there a few minutes ago, this one was strong too, but kind. Armin realized just how lucky that they had conveniently been nearby.

“I see your fiery friend isn’t with you. Is he the reason you’re out here clearing your head?” Reiner asked.

“Yeah,” Armin said softly. “I mean no! I mean, kinda…”

Reiner nodded and then said, “Well, you shouldn’t live your life based around others. Live it for yourself. Know what you’re worth. If anyone is important to you, they will fit into that naturally.”

Armin thought about it for a moment. It was a pretty wise outlook to be sure.

Bertolt had picked up Armin’s phone from the ground and handed it back to him.

“Here,” he said, “it’s pretty banged up, but it actually still seems to work.”

To Armin’s amazement, it did. The screen was shattered, but other than that, the phone seemed fine.

“Well, we’d offer you a ride, but our car isn’t anywhere near here,” Reiner said. “We’ll walk you back to where you live though.”

Armin nodded, “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

The three of them set off back towards the dorm building. They talked a bit, but mostly it was Armin who listened. He learned that the two older males were graduate students at the other university in midtown, similar to Levi and Erwin at the university Armin and Eren attended.

Reiner had been on a few study abroad trips while in school, and had seen a good bit of the world. It showed in the way he spoke; he had a broad perspective on life. It was something Armin really admired. The older male also seemed to know all the novels Armin was fond of, and even suggested a few new ones to read. If there was one thing Armin and Eren didn’t really talk about, it was literature.

Armin realized he hadn’t really been reading like he used to ever since he met Eren as well.

Reiner asked some basic questions about Armin ranging from where he was from to what he liked to do in his spare time.

When Armin answered that these occasions were pretty much spent with Eren, he noticed that the older male seemed to stiffen a bit. Eren really had to have rubbed him the wrong way at that party.

But then again, that was Eren.

Before long, they were at the entrance to the commons building, and the two older males were seeing Armin off.

“Thanks for walking me back, I really do appreciate it,” Armin thanked them earnestly. “And thanks for helping me out earlier. I owe you a lot.”

Reiner smiled and waved his hand, “You don’t owe us anything. It was fate that led us there.”

Armin persisted though, “No, really. Name anything and I’ll pay you back.”

Reiner nodded slowly, “Anything? Alright, how about your number?”

“Of course!” Armin replied happily.

They exchanged numbers and then Armin said, “The screen is pretty messed up, but at least I can still use it.”

“Well, I hope I can help make you smile when you look to it when I send you any messages,” Reiner chuckled.

Armin thought that was a bit odd, but knew he was just trying to be friendly after everything that had just happened.

“I’d like that.”

“Well then, good night, and I hope your bruising heals soon,” Reiner said with a smile.

“Thanks, me too,” Armin returned the smile.

Bertolt simply nodded shyly, and then the two males turned to head off back into the city.

Armin made his way back to his dorm room and found it just as devoid of life as when he had left it. He took a hot shower and it was there that he saw the extent of the damage upon his body. He was definitely going to sport several nasty bruises on his torso. He couldn’t let Eren know. He would only get worked up and want to go looking for trouble then.

As Armin exited the shower he thought of how he had texted Eren right before the attack. He looked to his shattered phone, and sure enough, there was a message.

He hastily opened it, thinking that Eren had responded, but saw that it was from Reiner.

**It was a pleasure getting to know you a bit tonight, Armin Arlert. I hope you give me the honor of getting to know even more about you in the future. Until then, be well and stay safe.**

Armin smiled. Reiner was well-spoken, that was for sure.

Just then another text came in.

It was finally Eren.

**Yeah, sorry. Busy. What’s up**

Typical.

Armin’s smile faded to a frown. The desire to talk to Eren was still there, but then he remembered what Reiner had said about living for one’s self. And how Eren didn’t seem to be quite as interested in talking to Armin as Armin was in talking to him just now.

He texted back, **Nothing. Forget it. Talk to you later**

He got dressed in his sweat pants and a baggy shirt and went to his bed. He wondered how Eren would take that.

 _Was that too curt? Will he think I’m upset?_ he wondered.

He fell into an uncomfortable, achy sleep, things still plaguing his mind the entire time.

The battered phone lay on his nightstand, not making another sound for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, so quite the shake-up, huh? Poor Armin, he was just trying to chill himself out. From here on out, things are going to pick up considerably. It may not seem quite like it at the time, but there will be little hidden details throughout the chapters (but to be fair, those details have been there for a while too already), and it is all leading to some major events. There will be more character development and more interactions between them all. Without spoiling anything, I just want to say this: Be wary of individuals. Everyone has an agenda. And oftentimes, when these cross, things don't go exactly according to plan. Ok, enough of that! I hope you all enjoyed, and please let me know what you think. The next chapter's mood will be lighter, I promise.


	14. And We Kissed, As Though Nothing Could Fall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bring to you all my longest chapter yet! I thought about splitting it, but decided in the end that it just worked better if I simply posted the whole thing. There's quite a bit of exposition at the beginning, but I needed to explain how people were getting to where I wanted them to be at this point, so I hope that's not too boring or anything. Once it really gets into the plot, I feel that it is pretty compelling at least. I have more to say at the end, but for now, enjoy! Song of the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBuwC4VJi50

When Eren returned to school with Mikasa at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday week, Armin had been overjoyed to see him again. They had texted each other some in the days apart, but only spoke on the phone twice. Eren had apparently been pretty busy.

Armin had also come to the decision to not tell Eren about what had happened to him the first night that Armin had been alone. He considered confiding in him after a few days had passed, but then thought better of it. It really would be better off with Eren not knowing he figured.

It did prove to be a difficult task to keep the bruises on his chest and stomach hidden though. It seemed Eren always wanted to pull clothes off of Armin whenever they were alone, especially the first few days that he was back. Fortunately, the baggy shirt that Armin would wear was a suitable compromise if other articles of clothing were allowed to be removed.

It was finally the last day of the semester though, and Armin and Eren both had one last final to take: their chemistry final.

“Ok, do you think you’re ready?” Armin asked as the two made their way inside the computer lab where they would take their test.

“Ready to plummet into the abyss of eternal failure? Yeah, I’ve come to terms with my fate,” Eren replied gloomily.

“Whatever,” Armin replied with a sideways smile, “I’m not worried about you anymore. You’ve come a long way. I know you can do it.”

Eren couldn’t hide his grin, “Thanks. See you in a bit?”

“Of course,” Armin answered as they made their way to their seats.

There were partitions that kept all the students from seeing each other’s screens, so for the next hour, Armin was enclosed in a small area with just the computer for company.

They were all finally given permission to begin the test, and Armin found it to be pretty straightforward.

At first.

Once he got further and further into the test, however, he noticed that it became much trickier. He worried that Eren might get nervous and make careless mistakes, but all he could do was press on and finish.

Once he had done so, he submitted the test, saw that he made a 92, logged off of the computer, and headed outside of the room to wait for Eren to finish.

When he was walking out, he noticed that the other boy had an extremely determined and frustrated look on his face. He was obviously struggling with the more difficult part of the test.

Armin waited for about 10 minutes until Eren strode out of the lab, a pained expression on his face.

“How’d you do…?” Armin asked slowly.

Eren looked down for a moment and didn’t say anything.

As soon as Armin was about to offer some words of consolation, Eren suddenly looked up with a beaming expression.

“I got an 84!” he shouted happily.

“Eren, that’s fantastic!” Armin exclaimed as he ran to embrace him.

They hugged for a moment before pulling away to talk excitedly.

“Man, it was really tough for a while there, but I just remembered what you told me about not overthinking it. Apparently it worked!” Eren said enthusiastically.

“See, I knew you could do it!” Armin responded just as energetically. “Now the semester is over and we don’t have to worry about anything for almost a month!”

“Right!” Eren agreed.

“We’ll have to get busy packing all of our things at our dorms though,” Armin added. “I’ll just keep most of my stuff in my box so that it’ll already be ready to go when we move in together next semester!”

“I’m so glad that worked out,” Eren said with a look of relief. “I thought for a while that it wasn’t going to. But it did! And in a couple days we’ll be in your hometown!”

It was all true. Everything seemed to have worked out after all. Even Jean and Marco got approved to room together. And soon, Armin and Eren would be off to stay with Armin’s grandfather for a couple of weeks. He had agreed to meet them at a train station outside the city and would drive them the rest of the way.

When Armin had spoken to him on the phone, he had seemed very excited to meet Eren and kept asking questions about him. Armin couldn’t blame him; he had never brought any friends home, let alone one as close to him as Eren was…

Armin knew from Eren that Mikasa was headed home to spend the holidays with her parents, but he had no idea what Levi and Erwin were doing. He assumed they would be doing the same thing.

Mikasa had graciously accepted to take all of Armin and Eren’s boxes home with her, where she would leave them at Eren’s house and with his parents. After the two of them spent Christmas at Armin’s grandfather’s, they were to head to Eren’s hometown when his parents had returned from their vacation where they would spend New Year’s and the week leading up to the first week back to school. She made them promise to pack efficiently though in order to cut down on the number of boxes.

Krista had already left to return home, but Hange still had a few more RA duties to finish before she herself could leave.

He had spoken to Reiner through text quite a few times since the one night. He and Bertolt were flying to one of the bigger cities up north to spend the time off with people they knew up there. It sounded like a fun trip. But Armin was just as content to spend the weeks ahead back home with the boy he loved.

He honestly couldn’t ask for anything more.

He and Eren spent the rest of their day packing all of the items in Eren’s room into boxes. Once they had finished, they began to head to Mikasa’s car with arms full of boxes.

Marco and Jean were leaving that night and bid their farewells.

Armin hoped that he would be able to fit all of his belongings into boxes that would in turn fit in Mikasa’s car.

They slept together on Armin’s bed and spent the next day packing Armin’s belongings. Once they had finished with that, it was now time to drop them off with Mikasa, and head to the train station.

Before they walked out of the dorm, Armin took one last look around him at the room. He wasn’t going to lie, he would miss it. A whole new chapter of his life started while he had lived here. But he knew he would soon move on to even better things to come.

Once they had gotten to Mikasa’s car, Armin found to his amazement that they were able to just barely fit everything in.

“I’ll be damned, you actually listened for once,” Mikasa said as she watched as Eren closed her door with a proud look.

“Your problem is that you don’t give us enough credit,” Eren said indignantly.

“I’ll give you that when you’ve sufficiently earned it,” Mikasa said as she walked over to him.

They looked at each other for a brief moment before leaning in for a quick hug.

“Be safe, and I’ll see you in a few weeks, ok?” she said as they parted.

“Of course I’ll be safe!” Eren said in a light manner. “I’ve got Armin to look after me, remember?”

Mikasa smiled as she got into her car.

Before she closed the door, she added to Armin, “Keep an eye on him, would you?”

“Oh, I’ll make sure he never leaves my sight,” Armin replied with a smile while Eren simply rolled his eyes.

Mikasa nodded, closed her door, and started up her car. As Armin watched her leave, he realized he was in almost the same position he was a few weeks previous. However, rather than being alone, this time he had Eren with him.

They looked to each other before Eren proclaimed, “Well, off to the station!”

With their book bags on their backs, they set off to the train station that was a few blocks away. Once they got there, they waited around until a train arrived and then boarded it. Their destination was the last stop on the route and from there it was about an hour to an hour and a half drive to Armin’s hometown. 

They sat on the train and chatted about what they would do over the break the entire time. The buildings of the city fell away as the train proceeded down the track, stopping at various stations along the way. Before too long, they had made it to their stop.

They got out and walked to the entrance of the station. They had barely exited when Armin saw his grandfather, standing by his car with an outstretched arm, beaming at them.

He was a broad-shouldered man, with medium length brown hair that had started to grey a bit, and a moustache and beard of the same color. He wore a brown hat that looked as if it had been owned and worn for many years.

“Armin!” he exclaimed happily as the two of them walked up to him. “Come here, my boy!”

As soon as Armin was within arm’s reach, he was enveloped into a bear hug.

“I didn’t realize just how much I had missed you until I saw you just now,” the older man said, his eyes shut tight in order to hold back what must have been tears.

“I missed you too, Grandpa,” came Armin’s slightly muffled response.

The embrace lasted another half minute before Armin was released and could breathe properly again.

His grandfather did indeed have tears in his eyes, but he was doing his best to keep them from spilling forth.

With both hands outstretched onto Armin’s shoulders, he finally looked to Eren, his expression still one of pure happiness.

“And this must be young Eren! It’s good to meet you; Armin has spoken very highly of you during our telephone calls,” he said brightly.

Eren smiled, “Really? Well I am honored. What did he say exactly?”

As Armin was realeased from his grandfather’s grasp when the older man went to shake Eren’s hand, he put a hand behind his head and involuntarily blushed.

“Haha, just that you’re a very dedicated learner…”

“Oh, come now, Armin,” his grandfather lightheartedly chided. “You’ve told me all about how much you admire his bold spirit. And how much great music you two have listened to together. And how you feel that you’ve really started to come out of your shell and-“

“Grandpa!” Armin said through clenched teeth, his face getting redder by the second.

His grandfather simply chuckled, “Of course, of course, I know it might be a bit embarrassing for friends to talk directly about these sorts of things.”

“Oh no,” Eren said with an amused and mischievous expression on his face, “I love it.” 

Armin shot him a quick annoyed glance before his grandfather continued on.

“That’s the spirit! You should always be forthcoming and honest with your friends, I always say. Every day we have on this earth is a blessing. And life is too short for regrets.”

At this, Armin frowned while his eyes looked downwards toward the ground.

It didn’t seem to go unnoticed by his grandfather either, who gently put an arm over his shoulder.

“Right, well, enough of that,” he said and then gestured to the car. “Follow me and I’ll get you both to the house. I’ve got a great dinner waiting for you.”

They all three got into the car, which seemed to be at least twenty years old, but still ran just fine. The trip back to Armin’s home took just under an hour and a half, and it was filled with stories of Armin and his growing up. His grandfather told Eren how Armin never wanted to be a part of any club or sports team in high school, but after some gentle pushing, he joined the track and cross country teams, as well as the science and history clubs. He hated running at first, but then got hooked on it as he overcame race after race. He was never the best, but he certainly wasn’t the worst. And in the other clubs he was in, he had received numerous awards and trophies, and even had led his teams to the state finals more than once.

His grandfather was very proud of him.

When they finally arrived at the house, the sun was beginning to set, and dusk was falling. It seemed even darker there, because the home was surrounded by trees. It was located in a rather rural location, with the nearest neighbors on either side being almost half a mile away.

The car rolled up the gravel driveway, and they all got out and headed inside.

The interior of the home was very clean and was filled with many antique items. It gave off quite a cozy feeling.

Armin’s grandfather told the two to make themselves at home while he went to finish up the dinner he had prepped earlier.

Armin led Eren upstairs to his room where they set their bags down.

“This is a really nice place,” Eren said as he sat on Armin’s bed and looked around at the room.

The room was decorated with posters of old maps, artwork, and some of the certificates that Armin had undoubtedly been awarded while in the academic clubs at his old high school. There was a desk next to his window that had a few notebooks and journals, as well as a few books. A desktop computer sat there too. A bookshelf stood against one of the walls and was lined with novels and textbooks on every row. His bed was against another wall with a nightstand and reading light to one side. To Eren, he couldn’t imagine Armin living anywhere else.

“Thanks,” Armin replied while he went to look out the window.

Eren slightly tilted his head to one side and frowned, almost like a confused puppy would do.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Armin answered, still looking out the window. “Why?”

Eren stayed seated on the bed, “You haven’t said much since we got off the train.”

Armin finally turned away from the window and sighed, “I guess it’s just a little weird being back. And having you here.”

At this, Eren furrowed his brow, “Oh, well I’m sorry to make your return home so weird. I’ll just keep out of sight then.”

Armin suddenly jerked his head up to look at the now vexed looking brunette.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that at all!” he cried out. “It’s just like I said before; I’ve never really brought anyone home before.”

Eren’s expression softened, “I’m sorry. I forgot. I guess it would be kinda weird then.”

Armin walked over to sit on his bed next to Eren, “I’m fine, really. Just a lot of old memories. I’m glad you’re here though.”

Eren looked into soft blue eyes, “Me too. And I’m glad we get to spend Christmas together.”

Armin didn’t say anything, but frowned again.

“Why is that back all of a sudden?” Eren asked emphatically.

Armin shook his head, “I think I mentioned it once before; I don’t really care for Christmas. But I think with you here, I’ll like it a bit more this year at least.”

Eren just shook his head with a slight smile, “I don’t know what anyone would not like Christmas for, but if I can make it enjoyable for you, then that will be the only gift I need this year.”

Armin smiled softly as he gazed back into the emerald green eyes he had fallen so in love with. The two of them slowly leaned in for a kiss when suddenly they were interrupted by a call from downstairs.

“Come on down and take a look at this, you two!”

They pulled away from each other and slightly laughed before getting up to venture downstairs. There was a mouthwatering aroma wafting through the air as they came to the bottom of the stairs.

When they entered the kitchen, they were greeted with a delectable display of food.

There was a honey baked ham on a platter that was topped with slices of pineapples and cherries pinned to it with toothpicks. Accompanying it was a bowl of mashed potatoes, another bowl of egg salad, and a dish of what looked to be green bean casserole. Armin’s grandfather was just setting down a basket full of freshly baked dinner rolls.

Armin and Eren stood there in silence for a moment, their mouths slightly ajar.

Armin then spoke up, “Grandpa! You didn’t need to do all this! It’s not even Christmas yet!”

His grandfather simply laughed, “I know, I know. But I’m sure you two must be starving! After all that travelling today. And when can you name the last time you’ve had a home-cooked meal like this?”

Armin couldn’t deny it. It had to have been the night before he left to go to college. But Eren had just been home for Thanksgiving…

“Man, my parents cooked for Thanksgiving, but it was nothing like this!” Eren exclaimed, addressing Armin’s thoughts. “Just a dry old turkey with some salad and cranberry sauce.”

“Well, I’m sure they did their finest, but I love to cook!” the older man said cheerily.

It was true. Throughout Armin’s life, his grandfather always had some fine meal he would cook up several times a week. He’d experiment often, and it rarely turned out a failure.

He didn’t realize how much he had taken it for granted until he left home to attend school in the city.

“Alright, help me bring these to the dining room table,” Armin’s grandfather instructed them. “I’ve already got the table set.”

Soon, they were all seated in the dining room and enjoying a feast fit for royalty. Eren was seemingly in heaven.

“This is the best ham I have ever had in my entire life,” he said between mouthfuls of food. “And the sweet tea is amazing too!”

Armin’s grandfather chuckled, “Well, thank you! I still brew the tea like my mother used to: on the stove top. Sweet iced tea on a hot summer’s day is a blessing in and of itself. And the ham is my own creation. I’ve had it slow-roasting all day, and then I let it simmer in its own juices. I then added some brown sugar and honey, among other ‘secret’ ingredients, to make a nice glaze.”

“It’s divine,” Eren complimented as he took another huge bite. “So, what would you like me to call you? I never asked.”

“Well, I’m glad you two enjoy! And Mr. Arlert is fine!” He then gestured to Armin, “I’ve gotten Armin to take note for a few of my recipes, but he can stand to learn a bit more.”

Armin smiled, “I’ll need you to show me how to make this before we leave.”

Eren suddenly looked to Armin, “Hey, how come you’ve never made anything like this back at the dorms?”

Armin shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess it just didn’t feel right not making it at home.”

“Ahh, Armin! Don’t deny your friends your talents!” his grandfather admonished him. “You can make a fine dinner. You’ve done it plenty of times!”

Armin smiled as he took another bite of the food. Getting praise from his grandfather when it came to food was probably the highest he could ever receive.

Once they had all finished their plates, Eren going back for seconds, they sat around the table and simply talked for a while. When the conversation turned to music, his grandfather suddenly sat upright.

“Ah, Armin! It’s been so long since we’ve had a duet! Follow me to the living room,” he exclaimed as he got up to walk into the next room, seemingly on a mission.

Armin attempted to dissuade him to no avail, “Grandpa, no, I really don’t want-“

“Come on, and bring your friend!” his grandfather called, apparently not hearing Armin’s pleas.

Armin turned slowly to look at Eren, who met him with an intrigued look and grin.

The two of them got up to follow Armin’s grandfather, Armin slowly walking behind Eren.

Once in the other room, they found Mr. Arlert sitting at an older looking piano, but one that was obviously kept in good shape. He gestured for Armin to stand over by a stone fireplace.

Armin looked uncomfortable and hesitated to walk over.

“Oh, come now, Armin! We used to do this all the time!” Mr. Arlert attempted to appeal to him.

“Yeah, but not in front of a friend of mine…” Armin said through clenched teeth again.

“Do what?” Eren asked interestedly.

“I would play the piano, and Armin would sing along to the songs!” Armin’s grandfather answered. “He was always rather good at singing, but when he took up running, he really improved. The boy has got a powerful set of lungs on him!”

“ _Really_?” Eren inquired, putting a lot of emphasis on the word.

Armin shifted uncomfortable where he stood, but otherwise said nothing.

“Come on, Armin; you wouldn’t want your poor old grandfather to beg now, would you? It’s been so long,” Mr. Arlert asked of him again.

“Yeah, Armin, come on!” Eren joined in. “I showed you that one song from my childhood, remember?”

Armin closed his eyes for a moment and sighed in defeat, “Fine…”

“That-a-boy!” Mr. Arlert said excitedly. “I’ll even play your favorite tune.”

Armin stood a bit awkwardly in the room, but appeared to have begun accepting his fate.

“This song is called ‘Red Wing’. It’s about a poor little Indian girl whose love of her life is killed in battle and she is left all alone,” Mr. Arlert explained. “A bit sad, but a very nice sounding song I think. Armin has always loved it.”

Eren sat on the couch while the two Arlerts prepared themselves. Armin’s grandfather played a couple of chords, which showed that the piano was very much in tune. While he looked happy, Armin by contrast still looked a bit embarrassed.

He wasn’t able to avoid it for long, because then his grandfather motioned for him to begin.

What followed was a beautiful sounding tune on the piano, which was accompanied by Armin’s soft voice that was surprisingly powerful in its own way:

_There once was an Indian maid,_

_A shy little prairie maid,_

_Who sang all day a love song gay,_

_As on the plains she’d while away the day._

_She loved a warrior bold,_

_This shy little maid of old,_

_But then one day he rode away_

_To battle far away._

_Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,_

_The breeze is sighing, the night bird’s crying,_

_For afar beneath his star her brave is sleeping,_

_While Red Wing’s weeping her heart away._

_She worked for him day and night;_

_She lit all the campfires bright;_

_And under the sky each night, she would lie_

_And dream about his coming by and by,_

_But when all the Braves returned,_

_The heart of Red Wing yearned,_

_For far, far away, her warrior brave,_

_Fell bravely in the fray._

_Now the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,_

_The breeze is sighing, the night bird’s crying,_

_For afar beneath his star her brave is sleeping,_

_While Red Wing’s weeping her heart away._

_While Red Wing’s weeping her heart away._

When the song ended, Eren sat on the couch in absolute silence. Armin couldn’t bring himself to look at him, and could only imagine how foolish he must have sounded.

The moment of silence was broken when Eren said, “That… was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.”

Armin turned to him, incredulous.

“Really?”

“Really,” Eren replied.

“See, Armin? I knew your friend would love it!” Mr. Arlert joyfully proclaimed from where he sat at the piano. “I play it a bit slower than it usually is played, but I think it sounds better like this. And Armin can really perform it well.”

Armin couldn’t hide the smile that formed at these words. He had never sung in front of anyone before, other than his grandfather, of course. The fact that Eren was so captivated by it made his heart swell.

“Well, I think it’s about time for some coffee and these lemon pastries I made today,” Mr. Arlert said as he walked back into the kitchen.

Armin walked over to Eren and sat down next to him on the couch.

“You really liked it?” he asked.

“Yeah, are you kidding?!” Eren replied. “You put me to shame for sure.”

Armin laughed softly, “You sounded really nice that one night too.”

“Not like you though…” Eren said back, gazing into Armin’s eyes.

The rest of the night saw them all enjoying the dessert and coffee while Armin’s grandfather played a few more songs on the piano, although Armin didn’t have to sing along anymore. Armin and Eren eventually went to bed in Armin’s room after Mr. Arlert himself bade them both goodnight and went to his own room.

The two of them fell into a sound sleep in each other’s arms, not stirring once throughout the night.

The days that followed were full of nothing but rest and relaxation for Armin and Eren. Armin didn’t realize how much he needed the peace and quiet, away from the noise and buzz of the city. Eren also settled into the new environment very quickly. Armin’s grandfather was always more than happy to cook for them and play songs on the piano while the two sung along at times. He was also full of stories about Armin’s growing up, oftentimes to the blonde’s chagrin. While Eren would laugh and laugh at these stories, he never did it in a condescending way, which made Armin feel slightly better about it all.

When they weren’t spending time together at the house, the two usually walked around the woods that surrounded the area. Armin showed Eren the large oak tree that he used to spend time reading under on lazy weekend afternoons all throughout his years growing up.

“The only thing about oak trees is that you have to be careful when you sit under them,” Armin was explaining to Eren. “Sometimes the branches can break and fall, and they’re so large that if they hit you, you could die.”

“Jesus,” Eren replied while he gazed wearily up at the tree. “That kinda takes some of the charm out of this thing now…”

Armin laughed slightly, “Well, this one isn’t too old, so it isn’t as likely to happen. I don’t think anyway. But I remember hearing about a kid in the next town who died in that way, so I’ve never really forgotten.”

Eren slowly nodded while still looking at the large tree.

Mr. Arlert took them into town every now and then, which was only about a ten minute car ride. Armin showed Eren all the little cafes and bookstores that lined the old town square.

Sometimes they would spend the day wandering the sidewalks and hanging out in these various places until Armin’s grandfather would pick them up in the evening.

It really was a tranquil place.

Just a few days before Christmas, a light snow fell and blanketed the town in a sheet of white, which really helped to increase the holiday mood.

But while Eren was excitedly anticipating the big day, Armin was much more subdued.

“Hey, I’ve got an idea!” Eren exclaimed one morning. “How about on Christmas Eve, we spend the whole day exploring the old sites of the town? And then we can have your grandpa pick us up? But like, at night. I would love to see how it all looks in the snow with just the streetlights.”

Armin considered it for a moment before saying, “Yeah, I suppose.”

Eren nudged the other boy’s arm, “C’mon, it’ll be fun!”

Armin smiled, “Alright. We can do that.”

The weather forecast was predicting even more snow by then, which was a little unusual for the area. The town did typically see a bit of snow every year, but it was never more than a couple of inches.

Sure enough though, when Christmas Eve finally arrived, there was a solid half-foot of snow on the ground, with more flurrying down from the grey sky above.

Armin and Eren were riding into town with Mr. Arlert where he had agreed to drop them off and return later that evening to pick them up.

“I don’t think it’s snowed this much in years!” he exclaimed as they neared their destination. “And on this day of all days! We’ve got ourselves a white Christmas for sure.”     

Armin and Eren gazed out of the car windows at the winter landscape around them. The town square was decked out in Christmas lights and other decorations, and there was a large Christmas tree set up at the center. Happy families were all around, their children running and playing in the snow. The holiday spirit was alive and well.

Except for with Armin it seemed.

He hadn’t said much the entire day, while Eren was practically bubbling over with excitement. Armin’s grandfather, while sharing in Eren’s holiday joy, seemed to notice Armin’s mood, however.

When he parked the car at the side of the town square, he got out with the two of them as well.

“I thought you were going to see a few friends of yours while we were here?” Armin asked him quizzically.

“I am, I am,” Mr. Arlert answered. “Just wanted to see you two off first.”

He then walked over to Armin and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I know you aren’t very keen on this time of year, but… maybe this time it can be different. You’ve got your good friend here. Try to enjoy yourselves, ok? They’d want that.”

At this, Armin’s frown seemed to intensify and his eyes even glistened some. He then wrapped both arms around his grandfather and the two shared a warm, familial embrace for a few moments.

When they parted, his grandfather addressed both of them, “Alright, well you two have fun! Don’t stay out too long; it’d be a shame to catch pneumonia over your holiday break.” 

“Don’t worry; we know all the cozy little bookstores and cafes around here now!” Eren happily answered back.

Soon, it was just the two of them while Mr. Arlert left to visit with friends. Armin was wearing his thick pea coat to keep warm, along with a simple black beanie. Eren was wearing a hoodie and sported a dark green beanie of his own.

As they walked around the square and listened to the laughter and shouts of the children nearby, Eren finally asked Armin the question he’d been sitting on since his grandfather had spoken to him.

“What did your grandpa mean by all that? Have you always hated Christmas this much?”

Armin frowned, “I don’t _hate_ Christmas, Eren. I just… would rather it be over and done with without as much fuss as possible.”

“But why?” Eren continued to prod the other boy for a proper answer.

Before Armin could deflect the question, a group of carolers started to sing a rather loud Christmas tune right next to them in the square. The two listened for a bit before heading over to their favorite bookstore. They both got hot cups of cocoa, which they enjoyed while they went over an atlas that had maps of the world, both modern and vintage.

They spent a while picking out different places in the world that they wanted to visit together. One day. Maybe it wouldn’t happen, but it was a fun way to spend the time.

As they got up to set out on their quest to explore the original buildings of the town nearby, Armin’s phone buzzed.

At first, he thought it may have been his grandfather, but then saw that it was a message from Reiner.

**Hope you’re having a wonderful Christmas holiday. We will have to set a time to meet when you are back in town from visiting with your family.**

Armin smiled slightly. He was having a good as time as he could be he figured, but he didn’t want to say anything that would get another person he knew asking questions.

He texted back, **Thank you! I hope you are having a great time too. I would very much like to meet up when I’m back. I’ll let you know.**

When he put his phone away, Eren asked him, “Who was that? Your grandpa?”

“Oh, uh, no,” Armin replied a little awkwardly. “Just someone I know from school.”

Eren raised an eyebrow, “From school? Jean?”

“No, just some guy I met a little over a month ago. He’s just a grad student,” Armin answered, trying to act natural about it.

He really didn’t want Eren to know it was Reiner, as the two had met so poorly on Halloween.

“Some guy, huh?” Eren asked with a suspicious tone.

“Eren, it’s not like that!” Armin exclaimed defensively. “He’d just helped me out with a few things before, and we traded numbers. He was just saying that he hoped I was having a nice Christmas.”

“Mhm…” Eren responded, sounding as if he wasn’t totally convinced. “Well, are you?”

“As long as you’re with me, I am,” Armin reassured him.

This seemed to do the trick because a smile finally crossed Eren’s face before he happily asked, “Well, where to then?”

“I know there are some old building around the corner from here,” Armin answered as they walked out of the bookstore back into the snowy town square.

They made their way to one of the streets that led away from the town center, and sure enough, there were several old buildings to choose from. One was an old paper mill, another was a general goods store, and the last on the street was a hotel of all things.

They decided the old hotel would be the most interesting one to see, and so set off in that direction.

When they walked inside, they were immediately greeted by an older woman who seemed surprised but genuinely happy to have visitors.

“We just wanted to see some of the old buildings around here,” Eren explained.

“Oh, of course!” the woman exclaimed. “I love it when young people show an interest in history! Too many are content to just let the past fade away into nothing, and then they don’t know where they came from!”

Armin and Eren just smiled and nodded while the woman began to explain to them the general history of the place. It had apparently been built over a hundred years ago and housed some pretty important figures in its time, ranging from state senators to even governors. None of the names really rang any bells for the two of them though.

They walked some of the hallways which were dimly lit and had a faded blue wallpaper to them. The woman even went on to say that the place was supposedly haunted, but if it was, the ghosts were apparently not in a mood to reveal themselves that day.

After about an hour or so, they bid the woman farewell and headed back towards a café they had yet to try out.

“Well, that was cool, I guess,” Eren was saying as they walked.

“I thought it was really interesting! You sure you don’t want to see the others?” Armin asked.

“Ehh, I would if they were abandoned maybe,” Eren said, kicking at some of the snow. “When there’s someone there to give a tour, it takes some of the fun out of it.”

“But then we wouldn’t learn all those neat trivia facts,” said Armin.

Eren smiled and rolled his eyes, “I suppose. I’m glad you liked it.”

When they entered the café, a waitress came over to ask what they’d like.

“Do you guys have any eggnog?” Eren asked.

“We do… Do you have your ID?” she asked him skeptically.

“What would I need that for?” Eren asked in his most innocent tone.

“Because it’s alcoholic,” she answered flatly.

“Really? I had no idea!” he feigned surprise before looking at Armin. “Did you?”

“Uhh,” Armin responded, while the woman seemed to be quickly losing patience.

“What if I said I lost my ID, but I could promise you that I’m 21?” Eren pressed.

“Then I’d tell you I was so sorry for you, but I could offer you some warm milk instead,” she replied in an annoyed tone.

“Just bring us two espressos,” Eren said with a wave of his hand.

She scowled and walked back to the kitchen.

“Man, some people are so uptight,” Eren said shaking his head. “You don’t think she’s related to Levi, do you?”

“Hahaha, maybe,” Armin laughed out loud.

“I’m going to ask her if she’s French,” Eren said with a mischievous grin.

“Eren, I don’t think you should say anything else to her, honestly,” Armin said with a smile.

The two enjoyed their espressos once they received them and waited until the light of day had disappeared, leaving the square outside lit by the streetlamps. The snow looked truly beautiful now.

When they left money on the table and got up to leave, Eren decided the time was right to ask his question to the sullen waitress.

“Hey, do you like frogs?”

“Excuse me?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

“Never mind! Bonne journée!" he shouted as they walked out, leaving the woman confused and irritated.

Eren laughed to himself as they made their way across the square.

“You just had to do it, didn’t you?” Armin asked shaking his head and trying not to laugh too. “And where did you learn that thing at the end?”

“Oh, the little bit of French I sprinkled in there. Liked that, did you? I’ve been looking up things to say to Levi. Mostly to irritate him, but it worked with her too apparently,” Eren explained. “Remind me never to go to Paris though.”

Armin chuckled, “I guess that’s one city we can cross off of our list of places to see in the world.”

They wandered down a road that led to a small park that was next to a church. They decided to sit on a bench and watch the snow fall as church hymns could be faintly heard drifting through the cold night air.

“It really is nice, isn’t it?” Eren asked as he tucked his hands into his coat. “Cold, but nice.”

Armin, who also had pulled his arms close to his body, simply looked out at the snow falling around them and said quietly, “Yeah.”

Eren turned to face the other boy, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Armin said unconvincingly.

“No, tell me,” Eren persisted. “You’ve been acting weird for a while now. You can tell me.”

Armin looked at Eren with a sad expression, “I… can’t. I just can’t.”

Eren finally seemed to have had enough with Armin’s mysterious behavior.

“Oh, but I bet you can tell that guy from school, huh?”

Armin was taken aback at this, but could only utter, “W-what?”

“I know there’s more to this than you just ‘not liking this time of year’. I’m not stupid,” Eren said a bit angrily.

Armin turned away to face the ground and closed his eyes.

“Whatever,” Eren said as he stood up. “Keep your secrets. I’m heading back to where your grandpa will be picking us up.”

He walked a few paces away before Armin finally spoke, “It has nothing to do with that guy. It happened a long time ago.”

Eren stopped walking and turned back to face the other boy, “What happened a long time ago?”

Armin kept his eyes shut a moment longer before finally opening them to look at Eren with a tearful expression.

“I’ve never told anyone this. But if it helps you to understand, then… I’ll tell you.”

Eren stood where he was and crossed his arms, “Ok, I’ll listen.”

Armin sighed before he began his story, “Like I said, it was a long time ago. I was only about three years old, but I remember it clearly. Back then, I lived with my parents. They weren’t rich. Actually, they struggled a lot to make ends meet, especially for me. I don’t think I was planned. But they were extremely kind.”

As he was telling his story, the organ from the church began playing the tune of Silent Night. It added a strange soundtrack to what Eren was hearing, but he paid close attention to every word Armin said.

“That year, at Christmas, they told me that they couldn’t afford the gift I had wanted. I can’t remember what it was; it was just some stupid toy or something. My grandpa always offered to help pay for things, but they didn’t want to rely on him. I got so angry with them. I refused to talk to them. Even on the day, Christmas Eve, they left me at my grandpa’s house to ‘go see family’. I remember my grandpa trying to get me to wave goodbye to them, but I wouldn’t.”

The hymn had increased in volume as it began the second verse.

“They drove away from the house, and…” Armin’s voice began to break, “that was the last time I ever saw them. They were killed in a car accident on the way into the city. They had gone to buy me presents as a surprise with the little bit of money they had worked so hard to save up. And then my grandpa had to raise me.”

Eren stood in complete silence as he listened to the heartbreaking tale and saw tears begin streaming down Armin’s face as the dam broke.

“So you see? Do you see why I don’t really like this time of year? Everyone goes so crazy over presents and meaningless things, when they should just appreciate those close to them. I pushed them into going on that drive. I’m the reason they died! The reason why my grandpa has had to sacrifice so much. The reason why his son is dead.”

Armin finally began to cry in earnest while Eren walked back over to him and sat on the bench again. He wrapped an arm around the weeping boy.

“Hey, don’t say that. None of that is your fault. You were just a little kid; they would have gone to get you gifts anyway,” he said in an attempt to console Armin. “There’s no way you could control what happened on the road miles and miles away.”

Armin spoke in a broken voice as the hymn from the church had gotten even louder, “But they left thinking I hated them. Now they’ll never know how much I loved…”

As he began to sob again, Eren gave him a gentle shake, “Armin, kids act like that all the time. You should have seen me. I gave my parents hell. But they knew I loved them. It’s just how kids are sometimes. You have nothing to regret.”

Armin looked at him, tears still falling down his face, “Sometimes… I think that I might push you away too. I’ve always done that to people. They always leave…”

Eren began to delicately wipe away the tears from the other boy’s face, “Armin. I love you. And I don’t know if you’ve figured this out yet, but… you’re stuck with me. Whether you like it or not.”

For the first time all month, a genuine, pure smile formed on Armin’s face.

“I love you too.”

He leaned in to Eren and buried his face in his hoodie as the brunette wrapped his arms around him and held him.

The hymn from the church had ended, and people were beginning to leave to head home for the night.

“I’m so sorry,” Eren apologized. “This whole time… I had no idea. And I’d been giving you such a difficult time.”

“It’s alright,” Armin said softly, still leaning against him, tears still falling, though not as intensely. “You didn’t know.”

“Armin, it’s not ‘alright’,” Eren countered. “I need to learn to control myself. I always act like I’m owed something, even when I’m not. So really, I’m sorry.”

Armin hugged him tighter, “I forgive you.”

They sat there on the bench, holding onto each other as the snow continued to fall around them. They didn’t speak anymore until it was time to head back to the square where Mr. Arlert would pick them up.

They made their way back to the town square where they saw Mr. Arlert’s car already waiting for them. When they opened the door, he happily greeted them.

“You two have fun? I hope you didn’t catch frostbite or anything!”

“Nah, all limbs and digits present and accounted for,” Eren replied as he sat down next to Armin in the back. “Armin, tell him about the haunted hotel!”

“Well…” Armin began slowly, still collecting himself from his and Eren’s previous conversation, “we got a tour of the old hotel nearby. A lot of famous people had stayed there, and allegedly it’s haunted as well.”

“Ah, yes,” Mr. Arlert said as he began to drive down one of the roads that would lead them back to the house, “The old Statesmen Hotel. It was still in use when I was a kid. Shows my age there! Didn’t know it was haunted though…”

“Allegedly,” Armin repeated with a small laugh.

They chatted the whole way back, but were careful to avoid the subject of Armin and Eren’s experience on the park bench by the church.

When they finally arrived back at the house, the three of them enjoyed a nice dinner and a blueberry cobbler, which was as tasty as any of the other dishes that Armin’s grandfather had made them in the last couple of weeks.  

Mr. Arlert lit the fireplace, and the living room was bathed in an orange glow as the flames danced around inside the hearth. After a while, he retired upstairs to his room and left Armin and Eren below to enjoy the warmth and their mugs of hot cocoa.

The day of walking around town finally caught up to Armin, and he suddenly felt very tired.

“Do you want to head upstairs to bed now?” he asked Eren.

The other boy yawned before answering, “In a little bit. I really like it down here right now.”

Armin smiled and leaned over onto Eren as the two of them cuddled under the thick blanket they had draped over them on the couch. It really was very cozy watching the fire burn as snow flurries could still be seen falling outside the window.

“Alright, we can stay a few more minutes,” Armin said quietly as he nestled up against Eren.

Those few minutes turned into hours when the both of them drifted off to sleep together. They were both so exhausted, they didn’t stir once until morning came and the light of the new day shone in through the windows.

Armin woke up first to find a still soundly sleeping Eren lying beneath him. The house was silent except for the ticking of the antique clock in the room and Eren’s soft breathing. He gently got up so as not to wake the other boy. Eren made a small noise as he turned over, but otherwise continued his deep slumber.

It was still pretty early, but Armin found himself very much awake. He looked at the fireplace where only dim embers smoldered in the once brightly lit hearth. He decided to walk over to one of the windows and sit in a chair. He gazed out at the white expanse outside, which reflected some of the rising sun’s rays in an almost blinding way.

The snow had finally stopped falling, which was probably a good thing because the roads would become very dangerous to drive on if it continued. His old town was experienced with dealing with snow here and there, but not as much so as the other towns and cities further north.      

He silently contemplated everything that had happened the day before. How he and Eren spent so much time imagining places in the world that they could one day go and visit together. How they explored that old hotel, even if Eren didn’t enjoy it quite as much as he did. How Eren suspected him of talking to another guy behind his back in a romantic way. How Eren forced him to reveal his most painful memory.

_No, he didn’t force me to do anything_ , Armin berated himself for thinking in such a way. _He just didn’t understand why I was acting the way that I was. He was so excited for this time of year, and I was selfishly ruining it._

_Eren was owed an explanation at that point, and he was very understanding about it_ , Armin continued to think to himself. _It’s no wonder he thought I was talking to another guy, after the way I’d been acting about it after the text._

Armin wasn’t going to lie though; it did hurt to have Eren accuse him of being unfaithful. He could never imagine being with anyone else.

_I’m truly lucky to have him_ , he thought.

He stared out the window a little longer before heading upstairs to his room to retrieve something he had bought a few days before when he and Eren were in town.

He had done his best to keep it a secret, which wasn’t easy considering he and Eren had been together practically every moment of every day since they had been staying at Armin’s grandfather’s, but it seemed he had been successful.

He pulled out a little box that he had hid under his bed. Inside was a gold necklace with a small emerald jewel attached to it. When he saw it in one of the shops, it instantly reminded him of Eren’s beautiful eyes. He decided right then and there to buy it, not caring for the price, while Eren was busy flipping through books on a shelf nearby.

Armin smiled as he cradled the box in his arms and headed back downstairs. As soon as he reached the bottom, the old antique clock in the living room chimed as it hit the hour mark.

As the pleasant sounding tune of the bells rang, which Armin remembered his grandfather telling him years before as being called Westminster Chimes, Eren finally seemed to wake up. He stretched out his arms and groaned as he sat up. He rubbed his eyes and then noticed Armin standing there.

“Hey, up already? What time is it?” he asked groggily.

“Judging by the clock, I’d say it is seven in the morning,” Armin answered as he hid the box behind his back.

“That early, huh? No wonder I’m still tired,” Eren said as he leaned back against the couch.

Armin tried to keep the box hidden behind his back, but Eren seemed to notice it nonetheless.

“What’s that there?” he asked with one eyebrow raised.

“Uhh, nothing…?” Armin attempted to deflect his questioning to no avail.

“Sure,” Eren said, unconvinced. “Ok, let’s see it.”

Armin sighed but smiled when he brought the box out from behind his back.

“I don’t really do the whole gifting thing, because… you know…” he said as he gave Eren the box. “So if you don’t like it, I won’t be offended.”

Eren wasted no time in opening it, and when his eyes beheld the necklace inside he fell silent.

“I just saw it at one of the stores we were in a few days ago, and thought you might like it,” Armin said quickly. “Do you like it? Like I said, if you don’t-“

Eren interrupted him as he held it up in front of him, “Armin… I love it. It’s beautiful.”

“You really think so?” Armin asked a bit timidly.

“Yeah!” Eren exclaimed happily as he went to put it on. “I’m not ever taking it off!”

Armin laughed, “Oh, well good! I’m glad you like it. Here, let me help you.”

The blonde sat down on the couch and clasped the necklace together on the back of Eren’s neck. The other boy looked down to where it hung at the top of his chest, admiring it.

“Armin, it really is amazing. Thank you,” Eren said quietly. “I know you don’t really do this sort of thing at this time of year, but I think that makes this extra special.”

Armin silently smiled back. He noticed that the emerald on the necklace matched Eren’s lovely green eyes perfectly.

Before he could admire the sight further, Eren suddenly sprang to his feet.

“Wait here! I’ll be right back!”

He then ran off upstairs, leaving Armin alone in the room with the ticking of the clock.

After about a minute, Eren came bouncing back downstairs with his book bag.

“I bought this the other day too,” he said as he reached inside the bag. “I found it at one of the bookstores.”

He then pulled out a brown leather book with blank beige pages fastened together with strings.

“I know you like books, so I thought you could do some of your own writing in this! Maybe even draw a little!”

Eren handed the book to Armin, who took it and looked it over.

“Like a journal? Eren, this is perfect! Thank you!”

Eren smiled and looked away, “If I would’ve known you were going to buy me jewelry I maybe would’ve gotten something a little nicer…”

“No!” Armin exclaimed earnestly. “It really is perfect! I know I’ll use it.”

“Well, I guess that’s the important thing, huh?” Eren said as he sat back down next to the blonde.

They looked into each other’s eyes before sharing a long, loving kiss. Armin put a hand up to Eren’s check, who rested his head on it.

As they parted, they heard feet coming down the stairs.

“You boys up? I heard some excited talking,” the voice of Mr. Arlert called out.

He strode into the living room where he saw the two of them on the couch with the gifts they had just given each other.

“Ah, I missed the gift exchange! That’s alright, I’ve got a couple of my own,” he said as he went to grab some things from the dining room.

When he came back, he had a recipe book for Armin that contained many of his own homemade recipes for various meals. Eren was extremely excited over this particular gift, because he knew that it meant he was in for some fine meals in the future. Armin’s grandfather had even gotten Eren a gift. It was a one year paid subscription to the music app that Eren always used.

“Oh yes, thank you!” Eren practically shouted. “Mine was just about to run out!”

Mr. Arlert just chuckled, “You’re very welcome, Eren! I know how much you two listen to music, and even though I don’t know much about the hip, new songs of today, I figured you could make use of that.”

When Armin and Eren glanced at each other with smirks, Mr. Arlert added, “Kids these days still say ‘hip’, right?”

At this, the two of them burst into laughter while Mr. Arlert simply looked on and smiled.

The rest of the day was spent much like the days previous: the three of them sharing stories, tasty meals, enjoying Mr. Arlert’s piano playing, and simply delighting in each other’s company in the nice, warm house.

Although unlike the past few days, there was much more laughter and joy on Armin’s part. For the first time in many years, perhaps even his whole life, he finally had Christmas memories he could look back on and cherish.

And to him, this was the greatest gift he could have ever received.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there it is! A lot of development there, right? I think this chapter was the most fun for me to write thus far. However, I realized halfway through that there was something I forgot to write a couple of chapters ago... poor Armin's birthday! I looked it up and saw it is supposedly on November 3rd, and now we are past Christmas... I thought about just mentioning it like it already happened, but I had plans for that, so I think I'm just going to change it to another date in this fic. I hope that is alright with everyone. Also, the song I picked for this chapter up above is one that I am especially fond of. I don't usually sing in front of others (like our Armin here, haha), but when I'm at the odd karaoke night with friends, this is my go-to. David Bowie was a legend, and I always liked this one in particular. As always, please let me know what you all think. Your comments truly inspire me to keep going. See you next time!


	15. Hold on to Your Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! This one turned out longer than I expected, and I'll preface it now: there is a smut scene towards the end. I know some of you aren't too big into that, but it's quite alright if you want to skip over it. The story resumes with a few paragraphs before it concludes, so if you want to head straight to that, it's completely fine! Anyway, here is the song, and I hope you enjoy the next installment of this work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OHODvW2M8c

Armin and Eren spent the next few days enjoying themselves at Armin’s grandfather’s house in much the same way that they had done in the time leading up to Christmas. This time, however, Armin was in much better spirits. His emotional talk with Eren on Christmas Eve did a lot to help him come to terms with how he handled the holiday season. It also allowed him to set free all of the horrible feelings he had kept bottled up inside him those many years.

He counted himself extremely lucky to have someone like Eren who seemed to understand the way he felt.

On New Year’s Eve, Armin’s grandfather helped the two boys get their belongings into his car before he was to take them to Eren’s hometown. He had happily agreed to drive them the whole way there rather than meet Eren’s parents somewhere in the middle.

Armin knew it was because he would be able to talk to them both for as long as possible this way, but he didn’t mind. If it made his grandfather happy, it would make Armin happy too.

As they were leaving the warm and cozy house behind, Eren stared out of his window.

“I’m going to miss this place. You have a very nice home, Mr. Arlert.”

“Oh, well thank you!” Mr. Arlert practically gushed. “And know that you’re welcome here any time! I’m sure you and Armin will be busy when you both get back to school, but don’t be strangers!”

“Well when the summer break starts, I’ll have to come home anyway, Grandpa,” Armin reminded him. “And Eren and I will hang out as much as we can, right?”

“Absolutely!” Eren said excitedly.

The three of them talked almost the entire time it took them to travel to the town in which Eren’s parents lived. It took almost two hours to get there, but the trip seemed much shorter.

Whereas Armin’s hometown was north of the city where they went to school, Eren’s was south. All of the snow that had fallen the week before had completely melted away by the time they pulled into the suburban neighborhood where Eren’s home was located.

They pulled into the driveway of the house that Eren pointed out and Armin observed that it was larger than the house his grandfather owned. It wasn’t a mansion by any means, but it was of a pretty good size.

All of the houses in the neighborhood looked a bit similar, but Eren apparently lived in one of the largest. Behind the house was an expanse of woods, no doubt the location of many of the stories Eren had regaled Armin with of his exploits after school.

They had all three gotten out of the car and removed what Armin and Eren would be taking with them when Mr. Arlert turned to face the house.

“Hmm, no one to meet us,” he said, more to himself than the other two.

“Not a surprise,” Eren said a bit sullenly. “My parents keep to themselves mostly. Well, my dad anyway…”

No sooner had he said this, than the front door opened to reveal a slender woman with long brown hair that was tied back and hung over her shoulder. She had light brown eyes and was positively beaming at the sight of them.

“Eren!” she called out.

Eren held up his entire arm and waved back, “Hi, Mom!”

The three of them walked up to the house towards Mrs. Jaeger, and as soon as Eren was within reach, she enveloped him into a long hug.

“Mom, you just saw me a month ago,” he said in a muffled voice.

“I know,” she said, not letting go of him, “but I just can’t help getting excited. And you’re going to be here much longer than when you were back for Thanksgiving!”

When she finally released him, Eren pulled away, his hair now a disheveled mess.

“Well, I want you to meet my friend, Armin,” he said gesturing to the blonde beside him. “And this is his grandfather, Mr. Arlert.”

The two Arlerts greeted Eren’s mother in their own polite way.

“It’s so nice to meet you both,” she said happily. “I’m Carla. I would introduce my husband, but he’s… busy with a project from work.”

Eren scoffed, “Of course he is.”

“Oh, Eren, you know how much importance your father places on his work,” Carla admonished her son.

“Believe me, Mom, I know,” Eren said, his voice betraying his annoyance.

“Well, it _is_ how we can afford your tuition costs,” she replied in as firm a tone as she could muster, although it wasn’t much.

Eren didn’t say anything else, but still looked a bit irritated.

“Well, that’s quite alright, Mrs. Jaeger,” Armin’s grandfather said in an understanding way. “I know how it is to keep busy for our children. And as long as they are able to succeed in their lives, that’s all that matters!”

Eren’s mother smiled, “I think so too. Would you like to come in for some food before you leave?”

Mr. Arlert shook his head and smiled, “No, but thank you. I need to get back home. My old eyes can’t see as well in the dark anymore, and I want to get back before the sun sets. I’m not as familiar with the roads down here, and I wouldn’t want to navigate them at night.”

“Well, safe journey to you then,” Eren’s mother said kindly. “Eren, go ahead and take your bags up to your room and then meet me in the kitchen. I have some things in there that you will like.”

As Eren and his mother went inside, Armin turned to say goodbye to his grandfather.

“Thanks for driving us,” Armin began to say before his grandfather wrapped him into a hug.

“It was so good being able to see you this month, my boy,” he said warmly. “It was over all too soon. And I really enjoyed meeting your friend. He’s a fine young man. You’ve got yourself a keeper.”

At those last words, Armin froze up a little. He knew his grandfather would most likely not have a problem with who Armin chose to spend his romantic time with, but he’d not yet figured out exactly how to tell him.

When Armin looked up at him with a quizzical expression, his grandfather simply laughed.

“No need to say anything. But I have a bit of advice, for whatever it’s worth. You tend to care too much about what others will think of you. You always have. But you’re only living this life for yourself. Never forget that. So spend it doing what makes _you_ happy. And with who can share in that happiness. Everything else doesn’t really matter.”

Armin smiled before he leaned in for another hug, “Thank you, Grandpa. I love you.”

Mr. Arlert gently patted his back, “I love you too. Now, go on. Enjoy the rest of your break with your friend.”

The two parted, smiles on their faces. Armin waved goodbye to his grandfather as the older man returned to his car and reversed out of the driveway before disappearing from view down the streets in the neighborhood.

As Armin walked into the house, he could smell a sweet aroma that seemed to be wafting through the air from the kitchen. He walked up the stairs where he found Eren waiting for him.

“You can drop your bag off in my room,” he said pointing towards a hallway. “It’s the one straight ahead. I’ll be out here.”

“Alright,” Armin said as he turned towards the hallway.

The house was very tidy and had an assortment of paintings on the walls that varied from picturesque landscapes to abstract art. The couch in the living room was leather and looked to be rather old but well-kept. All of the furniture in the home looked a bit old, but it was all arranged neatly and of obvious high quality.

Armin didn’t know exactly what Eren’s parents did, but they apparently were pretty well-off.

As he walked into the room that Eren had pointed out, he immediately noticed that it was much less kempt than the rest of the house. Lying on the floor were various articles of clothing, papers, and even a few cans of soda. The walls were covered in posters of various films and bands, and a dark curtain blocked out most of the sunlight from his window. His bed was a complete disaster. Pillows were pulled out of their cases and blankets were strewn in every direction. The sheets seemed to be barely attached at the edges, almost as if they were threatening to spring off at any moment.

Armin was not shocked in the least.

He laid his bag next to Eren’s by the bed and then made his way back towards the kitchen. When he walked in, he found Eren leaning over a pan of freshly baked cookies.

“I remember how much you used to love these, so I decided to make some for when you got here,” his mother was saying.

“’Used to?’ I still love these!” Eren said excitedly as he went to grab one.

“Oh, Eren, they’re still too warm!” Mrs. Jaeger attempted to caution her overzealous son.

“Yeah, but that’s when they’re still all gooey!” Eren exclaimed as he promptly popped a whole cookie into his mouth.

A small whimper escaped him and tears swelled in his eyes as he tried to chew the apparently still very hot cookie.

“See? Gooey and wonderful…” he struggled to get out, his mouth still full of the blazing treat.

His mother solemnly shook her head, “Eren, you’re going to burn your mouth again…”

Armin smiled and tried not to laugh. How Eren’s mother put up with his dorkiness for so long, Armin hadn’t the slightest idea.

When she noticed that Armin had entered, she gestured to the array of cookies and said warmly, “Oh, please help yourself, dear! But… maybe let them cool off just a couple of minutes.”

“Thank you!” Armin replied happily.

He picked up a couple of the hot cookies and sat with Eren at the kitchen table. Eren’s mother left them alone as she set off to fetch Eren’s father.

“Go ahead, eat ‘em while their hot,” Eren said, his eyes still watering.

Armin smiled slightly, “Thanks, but I’ll give them just a bit longer. I’m not sure I can handle ‘lava cookies’ as well as you can.”

Eren almost choked as he started to laugh, “Lava cookies! I’m going to call them that from now on.”

As the two of them laughed together, Eren’s mother returned, accompanied by a rather tall man with a slender frame. He had very dark hair that was grown out slightly and parted in the middle. Strangely enough, Armin noticed he was wearing a suit even though he had apparently only been working from home that day.

Whereas Eren’s mother’s eyes were warm and kind, his were cool and distant.

“Mikasa came by a couple of weeks ago with your belongings,” he said, skipping any sort of greeting. “Did you pass your classes? Or were you planning on leaving us in the dark forever?”

Eren scowled, “Yes, I passed them. What, did you think I was going to flunk out of my first semester?”

His father continued to give him the same neutral expression, “If your experiences in high school were any indication, such a thing could certainly have been possible.”

“Grisha…” Eren’s mother quietly whispered to her husband, not wanting an argument to break out.

“I’ll have you know that I made four B’s and one A!” Eren said heatedly.

Grisha frowned slightly, showing the barest hint of emotion for the first time.

“Not as bad as I had thought, but still. More B’s than A’s. You can stand to do better.”

He finally turned to look at Armin, who had become pretty uncomfortable at the sudden change in atmosphere.

“And you’re my son’s friend, I take it? What were your final grades?”

“None of your business!” Eren shouted, a cookie dropping from his hand onto the table.

“No, it’s alright,” Armin attempted to pacify Eren. “I got all A’s…”

Eren’s father nodded slowly, “Eren always did a good job at surrounding himself with those who were academically superior to him. Tell me, did you help him achieve his grades?”

“Uhh,” Armin didn’t really know how to answer that particular question.

If he was completely honest, he did. There were more than a few nights where he sacrificed his own study time to make completely sure that Eren would do well on an impending exam.

“Dad, what the hell is your problem?!” Eren yelled as he jumped to his feet. “You don’t even know Armin, and you’re interrogating him and making it seem like I only spend time with him because he’s smart?”

At this, one of Grisha’s eyebrows raised in curiosity. Armin shifted uncomfortably in his chair, not knowing where to look.

“That’s enough!” came a small but very stern sounding voice.

Eren’s mother actually looked rather angry at what had just transpired in her kitchen.

“This is supposed to be a joyous occasion. Eren is back from school, and this time for more than just several days. And he’s brought a guest! I won’t have you two ruining it with your bickering!”

After she finished scolding the two other Jaegers, she began to cough and turned away from them.

Grisha put a hand on her shoulder, “Of course, dear. I only wanted to make sure that Eren knows that I believe he is capable of doing much better.”

He gave one final contemptible look at Eren, which was followed by a strange glance at Armin before he walked out of the kitchen with his wife. The look almost seemed to be one of suspicion.

Eren continued to stand, silently fuming over what his father had been saying. Armin looked at him with a worried expression.

“Are you alright…?” he asked quietly.

Eren frowned, but his expression softened a bit, “Yeah, I’m fine. Believe it or not, that was a pretty tame exchange between me and him just now. You should’ve heard us on Thanksgiving.”

He then turned to look directly at Armin, “I just got really pissed when he directed that shit at you.”

Armin frowned, “He didn’t seem to be saying anything negative about me though. He just wanted to know how well-“

Eren cut Armin off, “No, he was implying things. It’s what he _doesn’t_ say that you have to watch out for. He’s really good at that sort of fuckery.”

Armin smiled very faintly at Eren’s colorful choice of words, “Well, he’s definitely overbearing, I won’t deny that. But maybe it’s just because he has high hopes for you?”

Eren’s expression darkened again, “Yeah, maybe.”

They were silent for a moment before a thought seemed to spring into Eren’s mind.

“Hey, let’s go to my room! I can show you all the old CD’s I used to listen to! And we can play on my old Xbox.”

“Ok, that sounds fun!” Armin replied excitedly.

As they walked to Eren’s room, he explained how he had been so proud of himself when he burned the CD’s all the way back in middle school at the age of 12. The songs were all downloaded off of the internet, and not by legal means.

“You had to be careful which file you went to save, because if you got ahold of the wrong one, you’d end up giving your whole system computer AIDS.”

“Oh…” Armin said quietly.

“That only happened to me one time, but after that, you won’t make the same mistake twice!” Eren kept saying. “Word of advice, when you are searching for a specific song and a result pops up matching it word for word, it’s too good to be true.”

“I’ll keep that in mind…” Armin replied slowly.

When they walked into Eren’s untidy room, he promptly leapt onto his bed and buried himself under his blankets. Armin grinned at the sight of Eren’s head when it poked out from the middle of the dark sheets, the only part of his body visible.

“What are you doing?” Armin asked, his voice on the verge of laughter.

Eren gave him a sly smile before saying, “I’m nesting.”

Armin laughed out loud, “What?”

“Just pick out a CD from the case on my desk over there,” Eren said nodding towards his computer desk which was just as messy as the rest of his room. “Doesn’t matter which one. Then come join me.”

Armin did as he was told and went to retrieve an old CD from the dusty case. He settled on one that was poetically titled “Muh Jams”, which was written on in black sharpie.

When he looked around for a place to play it, Eren called out from his bed, “Just stick it in the Xbox.”

After Armin inserted the disc into the game system, a rather loud rap song began to play.

“Ooh, ‘Muh Jams’!” Eren exclaimed. “That’s probably my favorite CD! I haven’t heard this in forever.”

As Armin crawled into Eren’s bed, the other boy raised the blanket he was under so that he could envelop the blonde into his warm cocoon.

“Very interesting musical choice,” Armin said with a smile as he curled up against Eren.

“Do you remember the songs that all the cool kids used to listen to?” Eren asked.

“Let me guess,” Armin said, “they’re all on this CD?”

Eren narrowed his eyes, “What, are you kidding? None of those songs are on this CD, because I was _anything_ but cool.”

Armin laughed again, “I’m sure you were cooler than me.”

Eren scoffed, “As if, Mr. Track Star.”

They smiled at each other before leaning in for a tender kiss. They remained this way for the better part of a minute before Armin pulled away.

“What if your parents walk in?”

“They would never come in here,” Eren said nonchalantly. “My mom did her best to clean my room while I was gone, but when I came back for Thanksgiving, I told her I liked it the way I had it and then messed it back up as best as I could.”

Armin rolled his eyes, “Always the difficult one.”

Eren pulled him in for another kiss, “And you love it.”

They both cuddled together and listened to Eren’s old CD for a while before getting up to play some of the old games on Eren’s Xbox. Even though it had been quite a while since Eren had played any of the games, he still managed to absolutely crush Armin in each one. That is, until they played one that focused on solving puzzles and other brain teasers.

“I was never any good at this one,” Eren said after losing to Armin for the third time in a row.

Armin chuckled, “You rush through it too quickly. You have to sit and think about it for a moment. It’s not too hard of a game.”

“Well that’s the thing though,” Eren argued. “It’s a game! It’s supposed to be fun, not something that makes you sit and think about it.”

“I like it,” Armin said, shrugging his shoulders.

“You would,” said Eren, who had to then dodge a pillow that Armin threw at his head.

He was about to throw it back when he heard his mother calling for him. Armin suddenly realized just how hungry he was. Other than the couple of cookies he and Eren ate earlier, they hadn’t had any food since they left his grandfather’s house.

The two of them walked towards the kitchen where they were met with the sight of a rather nice dinner prepared for all of them.

“I just finished!” Eren’s mother exclaimed. “I baked a few tilapias with an orange marmalade glaze, and we have mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and a nice salad to go with it.”

Eren’s eyes widened at the sight, “Wow, Mom. This all actually looks pretty good.”

Mrs. Jaeger smiled, “Well, I hope you all enjoy. It was nice making all of it.”

They helped bring the dishes into the dining room where Eren’s father was already seated. He was on his phone apparently concentrating on reading an article of some sort.

“Grisha, no phones at the table, remember?” Eren’s mother gently reminded him.

“I was just proofreading this article for one of my colleagues at the hospital,” he explained. “He’s going to submit it tomorrow at the start of the new year.”

When Carla frowned at him, he reluctantly put the phone in his pocket.

“Although I suppose it can wait for at least half an hour…”

Once they were all seated, they began to pass the various plates around to take what they wanted of the assortment of food. Armin and Mrs. Jaeger chatted about how it was like to attend school in the city. Apparently, she herself had studied there, which was where she met Eren’s father. He became a doctor and she went on to help manage large events and restaurants around the metropolitan area. She had just recently stepped down from her former job, but didn’t say why.

When Eren asked about it, she didn’t give a full answer either.

“I just felt that I needed to spend some time at home for a while,” she said. “My old position was becoming a bit too hectic for me.”

“When are you going to get a job, Eren?” Mr. Jaeger asked before Eren could ask his mother another question.

“There’s a few places around school that I was thinking about applying at,” Eren said. “I was going to wait until towards the end of the summer break though.”

His father shook his head, “You need to do it at the _start_ of the break. The earlier the better. Nowhere will be hiring at the end of the summer.”

“But I want to enjoy my time off from school,” Eren protested.

“You’re not a child anymore, Eren,” his father replied sternly. “You can’t waste your time with your little friends anymore. You need to start acting more mature and make professional connections.”

“I don’t see why I can’t do that at the start of my second year,” Eren said as he took another bite of the tilapia.

Grisha looked to Armin, “Are you getting a job for the summer?”

Armin hesitated a moment before answering, “Well, the library on campus will need new employees once some of the staff graduates. I wouldn’t mind working there, and the hours aren’t bad from what I’ve heard.”

Grisha nodded, “See? Even your friend here is already planning on making use of his free time.”

Armin actually hadn’t thought about it too much, if he was honest with himself. He knew he’d need to get a job at some point soon, because although his scholarship helps a lot, it doesn’t cover all of the cost of tuition. And there’s only so much his grandfather can keep doing to help him out financially.

“You need to remember, Eren, that you can’t just sit and do nothing and think that your friends are going to just sit there with you,” Grisha continued. “They have their own plans and you’ll only end up left behind. You’re not getting your education for me, your mother, or your friends. You’re getting it for yourself. It’s time you start to realize that.”

The darkened expression had returned to Eren’s face, “Thanks, Dad. I think I finally see the light now. I need to look out for myself, because no one else really cares about me.”

“Partially true,” Grisha said flatly. “Your mother and I have sacrificed a lot of money for you to go to this school. I’d have thought you would’ve realized that we _care_ enough to see that you were given the same opportunities we were given.”

“What your father means is that we only want to see you succeed,” Eren’s mother said gently, trying her best at damage control. “You have so much potential. And no matter what, we will make sure that you are given every chance to use your potential.”

Eren’s fork clattered to his plate.

“Why does everyone say it that way though?” he said, his voice rising slightly. “It’s like you all think I’ve got all the abilities to do great, but I’m going to find some way to screw it all up. Like you’re terrified that I’m going to do something stupid and embarrass you.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Mrs. Jaeger said, her voice betraying a bit of hurt at these words.

“And if we did think that, would we be wrong to do so?” his father asked as he put his fork down as well. “You’ve shown that you have the tendency to do just that in the past.”

“Oh yeah, here we go,” Eren said as he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Let’s talk about how I failed ONE class in high school. That teacher hated me!”

“And here you go, blaming others for _your_ failures,” Grisha reprimanded him. “You’ve never taken responsibility for a single thing in your entire life.”

Armin found that he couldn’t really continue eating. The food, while pretty good, had lost much of its appeal as the conversation at the table began to take a turn for the worst.

“That’s not true at all!” Eren yelled across the table.

“I’m sure your friend here has already seen that side of you if he’s been around you for this long,” Grisha said, further antagonizing Eren.

“His _name_ is Armin!” Eren shouted. “And don’t talk about him like you know anything about him!”

Grisha’s eyes narrowed, “You’re right. I don’t much about him. Hardly anything. I just know that he attends your school, that you two met, that he most likely helped you from getting mostly C’s, and now you two are moving in together. And that you seem to be inseparable…”

“What of it?” Eren said, his voice making it clear that he was asking a legitimate question.

“Have you met any girls at school yet? There are plenty of them there,” Grisha asked, his tone making it seem like he was asking another question entirely.

“What?” Eren asked incredulously.

“Grisha, that’s enough,” Eren’s mother said.

Mr. Jaeger ignored her, “You brought a couple of girls by the house before when you were in high school, even though they didn’t stick around you for more than a week. Now you’re not even making an attempt at it anymore.”

He then turned to face Armin, “So, _Armin_ , are there any girls that you’ve been talking to at school? Or has my _son_ been taking up all of your time with… study sessions?”

Armin could feel that his face had by now turned scarlet and there was no way to hide it. He wanted to just disappear. If the floor beneath him opened up and he plummeted into oblivion, he would be content. As long as he wouldn’t be where he was right then.

“Shut your FUCKING _MOUTH_!” Eren roared as he picked up a piece of the tilapia and hurled it at his father where it struck him in the center of his chest, staining his suit.

“EREN!” his mother cried in shock and despondency.

Eren’s father simply looked down and gazed at the food that had slid down the front of his shirt, but didn’t say anything.

Eren’s mother stood up from the table and walked out of the room, her coughing having returned.

Armin sat frozen in his chair, mortified at what had happened.

As Eren continued to glare at his father from where he stood, Grisha finally looked at him and said calmly, “I want you to understand one thing very clearly. The only reason you haven’t been thrown out of this house right now is because I care about your mother very much. And she can’t help but care for you. Otherwise, you would be celebrating the new year with your _friend_ here in the cold and the dark. And most likely nursing a broken nose.”

Eren continued to stare angrily at him, “You care about her? Bullshit. You don’t care about anyone but yourself. And I’d rather sleep in the gutters if it meant I could be away from _you_.”

His father only continued to stare back at him, “I suppose now is a good time to tell you that the money you receive from us for your tuition will also be drastically reduced this semester. We have… other expenses that require funding. Expenses far more important than you.”

Eren scoffed, “Yeah, whatever. Spare me the lies. You’ve just been looking for an excuse to try and starve me out for a long time, and now I’ve given you one.”

He then gestured for Armin to follow him back to his room. Armin got up without a word and walked towards Eren out of the dining room.

As they left Mr. Jaeger behind, Eren turned back to add one final jab, “Enjoy your fish.”

The two walked back to Eren’s room. Once they were inside, he slammed the door as hard as he could, causing a small mirror to fall off his wall and shatter onto the floor.

Armin sat on Eren’s bed, still not saying a word. Eren stood in the center of his room, silently shaking with fury and adrenaline.

After a few moments he finally spoke, “I hate him.”

Armin wanted to say something consoling, but his words were caught in his throat, unable to escape.

“I fucking _hate_ him,” Eren repeated, bitterly.

After a few more moments, he finally came to sit next to Armin on the bed.

“I’m so sorry,” he said sorrowfully. “We should have stayed at your grandpa’s.”

He suddenly slapped his own leg, “Fuck! I didn’t even tell him thank you or goodbye!”

Armin finally found his voice when he said, “It’s fine, he knew. He really likes you.”

Eren turned towards Armin, “I just wish that my…”

He couldn’t finish, but Armin knew what he was going to say. Eren’s parents were definitely not the type of people who would play the piano and laugh and talk about anything. Eren’s mother, maybe, but she seemed to do her best to keep Eren’s father happy, which always left her caught in the middle of his and Eren’s fights.

Eren sighed, “It’s alright. This is the norm here.”

“Eren,” Armin said softly as he put his hand over Eren’s still shaking one, “it’s not alright.”

Eren’s frown deepened, “If only they could just be happy that I’m happy. That they could see that I’m really doing my best. That… they would approve of me having found someone that I genuinely enjoy spending every moment with.”

Armin smiled sympathetically and squeezed Eren’s hand.

Eren then laid back against his messy sheets, “Well, that’s not going to happen now.”

Armin silently laid next to him.

“The most tragic thing about it all though, is that it was probably the best meal my mom has ever made…” Eren said in a wistful tone.

Armin smiled again, “I also take it that this dinner went a bit more poorly than Thanksgiving?”

Eren replied, “A bit.”

He then turned to face Armin with a slight grin, “I’ve also never thrown a fish at my dad before, so hey, you got to be here to witness that one. You should feel honored.”

Armin laughed slightly, “I feel something, but I don’t know if it’s ‘honored’.”

Eren started to laugh, but then his expression changed, “You know, it’s none of his damn business who I like.”

His gaze drifted towards one of the boxes in the room that Mikasa had dropped off.

“I’ve got an idea…” he said slowly, raising Armin’s suspicions.

“I know that look…” Armin said, just as slowly.

“You want to end the year on the best note possible?” Eren asked with a sly smile.

“Yep, that’s the look,” Armin sighed. “Eren, we can’t. What if they-?“

“Who cares?” Eren said, glowering. “I would say we should do it without music, just to spite my dad. But… Muh Jams will suffice.”

Armin considered it for a moment before saying, “Alright…”

Eren sprung up from his bed and hurried towards the box, “I’ll grab the good stuff!”

Armin smiled but shook his head. It was a bit fascinating to see how quickly Eren cycled through his emotions. He went to turn on the Xbox and play the CD again when Eren walked up to him with a bottle of lube in his hands.

“Are you ready, my ‘study partner’?”

Armin grimaced slightly, “Let’s not start saying that…”

Eren nodded as he thought about it, “Agreed.”

Eren then led him back towards his bed as the music restarted from the beginning of the tracklist. Hopefully it was loud enough to drown out any sounds that could possibly escape the confines of the room.

As they laid down, Eren said, “If this bed wasn’t a mess before…”

“It’ll be a good mess now,” Armin said as he pulled a grinning Eren in for a passionate kiss.

Their lips met in a sensual exchange of saliva as their tongues crashed together. Eren began to tug Armin’s shirt up over his head, revealing Armin’s slender pale frame underneath. His mouth journeyed lower until it came to the side of Armin’s neck where he began to suck forcefully.

Armin hung his head back slightly and softly moaned at the pleasant sensation. He could feel Eren’s tongue pushing against the tender skin as he continued, increasing his rhythm when he heard the sound of approval from the blonde.

Eventually, Eren pulled away to quickly remove his own shirt, and then wasted no time in practically tearing the rest of Armin’s clothes from his body. It seemed that this time, there was no going slow about it. Eren was on a mission.

They locked lips once more, as Eren used a free hand to push his pants and underwear down from his waist, the light from the lamp in his room illuminating his tan complexion.

When they were both completely naked, Eren began to rub his pulsing erection against Armin’s and the two of them matched each other’s movements in perfect synchronization.

After about a minute, Armin noticed something change slightly in Eren’s movements; whereas before, the other boy would generally move gently but passionately, now he had become a bit more aggressive and rough. His hips crashed against Armin’s in a vigorous way, and his breathing had increased noticeably.

 “Tell me if this feels good,” he said between pants.

He then put a hand around Armin’s throat, putting pressure on the sides of the boy’s neck. As the blood flow to Armin’s head was slightly impaired, he began to feel a slight dizzying sensation. When it got to the point where it felt like it would be too much, Eren would release some of the pressure on his neck, and the return of blood gave Armin a rush of all manner of sensation. It was slightly euphoric.

“Ahh,” Armin gasped, “keep doing that.”

They continued to arch their hips into one another, and Eren kept up the rhythm of pressure and release on Armin’s throat. This kept up for a while until Eren reached quickly for the lube and wasted no time in putting some on three of his fingers.

He spread the lubricant around his fingers before slowly pushing them into Armin’s body. The blonde moaned quietly as he felt Eren deftly enter him and spread his fingers at Armin’s entrance.

Armin rocked back and forth against Eren, his muscles relaxing in preparation for what was soon to come. Eren had now wrapped his other hand around Armin’s heated organ, slowly pumping the throbbing erection.

Finally, Eren pulled his fingers from Armin and used the remaining lube to coat himself before he pressed against the entrance into Armin’s shaking body.

As he pushed himself inside, Armin gasped in response. Like the times before, it was both pleasurable and a bit painful. Eren rocked further into him, and the two established their rhythm again.

Eren’s thrusts began to get more forceful and rough as time went on, his hand periodically resuming its place at the sides of Armin’s throat. It was almost as if he were getting angry. Armin did his best to keep up with the rocking movements of Eren’s hips, but found that each time he did so, the other boy would increase his pace.

Between the moments of pressure on his neck, Armin wondered if it had anything to do with Eren’s recent fight with his father. The aftereffects of the ordeal seemed to be taking a toll on him as he crashed against Armin with more and more intensity.

“Eren…” Armin breathed as the brunette thrust into him deeper and deeper.

“I love you,” Eren replied in a low voice. “No one is going to get in the way of us.”

Eren’s hand reached for Armin’s now leaking organ, and began to furiously work it as he buried himself into the boy more and more.

Armin moaned in ecstasy and pain, almost giving up at keeping pace with Eren. The other boy had taken complete control and was seemingly determined to provide them both pleasure on his own.

His hand sped up to almost a blur as Armin gasped and moaned as he reached his breaking point. Then, as Eren began to virtually slam against Armin’s burning prostate, the usually quiet boy almost screamed as he came in thick spurts all over his chest and Eren’s hand.

Eren kept up his rapid pace, and just when Armin didn’t think he could take anymore of the rough movements inside of him, Eren moaned as he released intensely into Armin, his hips slowing down to several final deep thrusts.

They breathed heavily, sweat glistening all over their bodies. Eren slid gently out of Armin and fell against him onto the bed.

Armin could feel Eren’s release coating his entrance, but he simply laid next to the other boy, trying to catch his breath as his heart pounded in his chest.

The music played on as the two of them steadied their breathing. Eren leaned over to lock lips with Armin again, and their tongues resumed their erotic dances. They held each other’s naked bodies for a while as they simply embraced one another.

Eventually, Eren pulled away and got up from his ravaged bed.

“Let me grab a towel for us,” he said before heading for the door in his room that led to the adjoining bathroom.

Armin continued to lie on the bed. His breathing had almost returned to normal, but now he found himself to be rather cold; since they were no longer engaged in a strenuous activity, the sweat had dried and the cold air had settled on him like a frigid blanket.

Eren returned and was wiping himself down. After he finished he handed the towel to Armin who did the same. They then dressed themselves in some more comfortable clothing for the night before holding each other once more at the edge of Eren’s bed.

“That was… different,” Armin said slowly.

“Was it alright?” Eren asked, a bit uncertain about what Armin thought of the whole thing. “If I hurt you, I didn’t mean to.”

“No, I’m alright,” Armin reassured him. “You just seemed to get a bit… lost there for a few moments.”

Eren frowned, “I… just kept thinking about everything. I suppose it came out during it.”

He then looked at Armin with a smile, “I’m just glad I have you.”

Armin returned the smile, “And I’m glad I could help. But I’m probably going to need a little while to… recover.”

Eren’s face formed an expression of both gratefulness and guilt, “That’s ok.”

They then gently kissed for a few moments before Armin suddenly remembered something.

“Wait, what time is it?”

Eren leaned over to check his phone, “Oh shit, almost 12!”

They both hurried to their feet and switched the Xbox off and put the TV onto one of the channels that was covering the New Year Countdown. They had only a few moments before the start of the new year, and there were a ton of people on the screen who had assembled in the city for the big event.

“Well, we may not be at a big party like they all are, but I think we ended our year just fine,” Eren said with a grin.

Armin smiled as he wrapped his arms around him, “Agreed. Maybe next year we can go to that?”

“Beats spending it here again…” Eren said in a low voice.

Armin held onto him a bit tighter.  

He couldn’t help but feel bad for Eren. He knew that he was trying his best, and had really done very well that semester. He just struggled with keeping his attention on certain things that didn’t completely interest him. And he seemed to have an issue with authority. Whether this was due to how he was raised, Armin didn’t exactly know. His father did seem to care about Eren’s success, but showed it in probably some of the worst possible ways. And it was obvious he didn’t exactly approve of a possible relationship between his son and another guy from school. Eren’s mother seemed nice though, and it was apparent that Eren cared for her very much. Perhaps in time, once Eren demonstrated that he was capable of achieving success in his own way, things at home would become much easier for him. Until then, it would probably be better if he avoided returning from school as much as he could. And Armin vowed to himself that he would help Eren in every possible way to do his best during this new year.

The audience had begun to count down from ten and Eren looked to Armin.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Armin answered. “I think we’re in for a great year.”

Eren smiled, “Me too.”

The clock struck midnight and the world entered into another year, full of boundless possibilities and opportunities. The crowd began to sing in chorus to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, and Armin and Eren leaned towards each other for their first kiss of the year.

“Welcome to 2018,” Eren said quietly.

“The year that will belong to us,” Armin said back as they shared a warm kiss.

It was a bit sad to leave the old year behind, for it was the one in which Armin had met the most important person in his life. He felt that he had grown so much, and was eternally grateful for it all. If the next year was anything like the one before, he would be happy. As long as he could spend it with the boy he loved, nothing else would matter.

And right there, he made it his own personal resolution to see that future come to pass, no matter what obstacles life would try to place in his way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright then, a bit different from Armin's and Eren's experience at Armin's grandfather's house, right? I didn't go into this chapter with the intention of writing Eren's father as such a... well, dick, haha, but I found that it added a layer to the overall story that fit rather well. I've had my own issues with family about them being a bit overbearing about what I should do with my life and what I shouldn't do, so I guess as a writer, you write from what you know. I've always considered what they've told me, but in the end I'm the one in charge of my life. There has to be a balance I think in that; you can hear out what those who care about you have to say, but it's your decision on what to do. As long as you're not doing anything that will put yourself or others in a negative situation, it should all work out fine. Well, anyway, I hope you all enjoyed, and as always please let me know what you thought! I'll try to have the next chapter up in a couple of weeks :)


	16. It's Times Like These I Need Relief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is a bit shorter and simpler than the last couple of chapters have been, but a few points that have cropped up in the story so far will soon be coming to the fore. I hope you all enjoy, and here is the song chosen for this time around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6thyhG7JbM

For the rest of the week that Armin and Eren spent at Eren’s parents’ house, no more arguments or outbursts had happened. Indeed, things were actually almost cordial. There was a sense of awkwardness to it all, but Eren’s mother, Carla, did her best to keep up a happy demeanor. Grisha, by contrast, did his best to avoid any encounters with his son and Armin and was doing a rather good job of it. If he wasn’t at work, he would lock himself away in his study, only coming out for meals. And even then, he barely said anything. It was as if he had completely written Eren off from receiving his attention.

Eren couldn’t have been more grateful for it though. On the walks that he and Armin would take in the woods behind his house, he would go on about how it was the first time in his life that his father wasn’t constantly badgering him about one thing or the other.

“I wish I would have thought to have thrown a fish at him years ago,” he had said.

Armin couldn’t help but feel there was something else going on though. The tension at the house was definitely noticeable, despite Mrs. Jaeger’s best attempts at making it seem like everything was fine. Still, he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Maybe Eren’s father was just extremely disappointed in him and was going to need some time to get over everything.

Mikasa had come by almost every day after New Year’s and would often take the two of them into town to both find something to do and to simply get away from the house. Eren had told her what had happened, and she had just shaken her head and frowned. She didn’t condone how Eren handled the situation, but she also thought his father needed to get a grip on the reality of how his son was planning to live his life.

“If you finish school, get a stable job, and enjoy what you’re doing, then it shouldn’t matter _what_ career you’ve chosen, or who you’re with,” she had said one afternoon at a coffee shop. “If they’re good for you, then that’s enough. But still, maybe you should keep the fish on your plate next time…”

Eren furrowed his brow and frowned after taking a sip from his cappuccino, “But he kept bringing up how I’ll never change, and that I’ve always been a disappointment, and blah, blah, blah.”

He then gestured to Armin, “And his bringing Armin into it was bullshit, there’s no arguing that!”

Mikasa held up a hand and calmly replied, “I’m not arguing that at all; it was bullshit. He’s just… a very old-fashioned sort of guy, you know that. He’ll need time to come to terms with the fact that you most likely aren’t going to bring home the sort of partner he’d originally have wanted you to…”

She glanced at Armin when she spoke, but then focused her attention back on her coffee.

Armin wasn’t really all that surprised that she seemed to know that he and Eren were more than just friends. She never said anything more on the subject, but it made him wonder how much the others at school knew.   

Finally, the day came that Mikasa would be taking Armin and Eren back to the city with all of their belongings so that they could move into their new dorm room. After almost a full month of being away from the lights and noise of downtown, Armin thought it was most likely going to be a bit of a shock to return.

After they had loaded everything into Mikasa’s car, Eren’s mother had come outside to wish them well.

“Don’t forget to call me when you get there so that I know you made it safely,” she reminded Eren as she wrapped him in a warm hug. “And be careful; the city isn’t like living here.”

“Mom,” Eren said in a slightly exasperated tone, “you told me all of this last time too. I’ve experienced life in the city for almost half a year now; I know what to do and not do.”

As she let go of her son, she looked to Mikasa, “You’ll call, won’t you? I know how forgetful Eren tends to be…”

Mikasa smiled, “Of course. I could stick a post-it note on his forehead and he’d still manage to forget.”

Carla laughed quietly as Eren rolled his eyes, “I won’t forget, Mom.”

She then turned to Armin, “It was so nice to meet you, Armin. I hope you don’t think negatively about us after staying here this past week. I wanted so badly for everything to be perfect, but…”

“No, it’s alright,” Armin reassured her. “I know things with family can get a little heated sometimes. But I honestly had a great time. I’m going to miss your cookies.”

At this, her face lit up with a bright smile, “You’re so kind. I’m glad Eren has found a friend like you. And don’t worry about the cookies; I’m sure you’ll get to try some again soon.”

She then gave Armin a hug before he went to climb into Mikasa’s loaded car. As Eren also went to get inside the car, his mother spoke to him once more.

“Eren, I know your father doesn’t seem like he cares, but he really does. I want you to know that. Please don’t carry any resentment in your heart for him. He’ll need your help one day.”

Eren had a slightly puzzled look on his face when he replied, “Well, he could be a bit less condescending then. And what do you mean by his needing my help?”

Carla just gave Eren a bit of a sad smile, “Just remember what I’ve said. I love you, my dear. Take care, all of you.”

She waved goodbye as they drove away, and all of them returned the wave. Soon, they were on the highway and headed towards the city, music loudly playing from the car’s speakers.

Armin and Eren talked excitedly about how the semester would go for them; they had registered to take two classes together rather than only one like the previous semester before. And even better was the fact that they would now be officially living with one another. They could finally have all the privacy they’d want.

After some time, they finally found themselves back in the bustling city. It seemed to have functioned as it always had in the time that they had been away. As they drove up to the dorms, Mikasa pulled up to the curb to allow Armin and Eren to take their things directly from there to inside the building without having to worry about going all the way through the parking deck. Since it was a weekend afternoon, there wasn’t much traffic to worry about either.

After having picked up their keys to their dorm room, they took the few boxes they had already to their new living space. Upon entering, they saw that it was furnished with the basics like their previous dorm rooms were, but the view was much nicer. The windows looked out onto the majority of the city, and the setting sun cast a beautiful light upon the buildings.

They couldn’t admire it for too long, because they knew Mikasa was still waiting for them to retrieve the last of their things. They went back downstairs to where she was still waiting on the side of the road and were grateful that they would only need to make two trips to bring everything up to their room.

After finally carrying the last bit inside, Eren closed the door and sighed loudly as he dropped the cardboard box onto the ground.

“Finally, we’re officially moved in.”

“Not quite…” Armin said slowly as he smiled. “We still have to unpack, remember?”

Eren waved his hand as he walked over to the couch, “Psh, we can do that any time. I’m going to do what Mikasa said she was about to go do.”

Armin gave him a quizzical look, “A bubble bath?”

Eren slowly nodded, a devious expression on his face.

“Well, I guess I can unpack my things while you’re in the bathroom…” Armin said, a bit disappointed that Eren already seemed to want to slip away for a while.

“I wasn’t planning on being alone, dork,” he said, the devious expression still on his face.

Armin looked confused for a moment, and then his expression changed as the sudden realization dawned on him.

“Ohh! Ok, yeah!” he said, slightly laughing. “That could be… nice.”

“Come on, and bring the bubbles!” Eren said excitedly as he jumped up from the couch and pranced into one of the two bathrooms nearby.

Armin opened one of the boxes and immediately found a plate wrapped in foil. He took it out and looked inside to see that it was full of Carla’s homemade cookies. He smiled as he placed it on the kitchen counter, but not before taking two cookies.

He then searched through the box until he found a half-filled bottle of bubble bath soap. He then walked into the bathroom to find Eren filling the tub full of warm water. He had already taken his shirt and pants off and was only wearing his boxers.

“Wasted no time, I see,” Armin said with a smirk.

“Don’t you like seeing me this way?” Eren replied with a mock-innocent look.

Armin held up his free hand as he set the bottle down, “Oh, I’m not complaining.”

Eren then noticed the cookies that Armin had in his hand.

“Hey, where’d you get those?!” he exclaimed.

“A gift from your mom,” Armin replied as he popped one into his mouth and gave the other to Eren.

“She’s so thoughtful, I really don’t know what I would do without her,” Eren said smiling as he too ate his cookie.

His eyes suddenly widened, “Oh! Remind me to call her when we get out of here!”

“You forgot…” Armin said chidingly as Eren refocused his attention onto the tub that was filling with warm, steamy water.

“Well I remembered now!” Eren shouted indignantly.

Armin simply laughed as he began to lay out some towels for them. After a couple of minutes, Armin then removed his clothing as well and joined Eren, who had since discarded his boxers and was sitting in the tub as it steadily filled with water. As Armin squeezed into the tub beside the other boy, he found that it didn’t really have a lot of room.

“Kinda tight, don’t you think?” he asked.

“A little,” Eren replied as he shifted in an attempt to make more space. “Here, I’ll sit with my legs stretched toward you. No way we’re going to be able to sit next to each other.”

After the moving around, Armin grabbed the bottle and began to pour some of it into the tub. Bubbles began to form and spread out at the water’s surface.

As he went to place the bottle back at the edge of the tub, Eren suddenly exclaimed, “Hey, don’t be so stingy! We can use more than that!”

Armin looked back at him with a defensive expression, “I’m not being ‘stingy’, I used the recommended amount that it says to use!”

Eren rolled his eyes and reached out to grab the bottle, “’Recommended amount’... Let me show you how it’s _supposed_ to be used.”

He then reopened the bottle and began to pour twice the amount that Armin had already put into the water.

“Eren! That’s going to be too much!” Armin cried out.

Eren seemed to be about to close the bottle, but then that signature look of his, full of mischief, appeared on his face.

Armin’s face, however, took on a look of worry as he quietly said, “Eren… don’t do it. Just put-“

Before he could finish, Eren had turned the bottle completely upside down and poured the rest of it into the water as bubbles began to spread out in every direction.

As Armin began to protest, Eren cut him off again with a wave of his hand, “Oh, what’s going to happen; the bubbles are going to eat us?”

He then began to slide down into the growing mountain of white and foamy bubbles, his arms outstretched.

“Nooo, Armin, help me! I’m being devoured! They’ve got me!”

Armin simply sat there as the bubbles grew around him, trying not to smile, “It’s no less than you deserve.”

After a few moments, Eren began to sit back up, his face covered by the bubbles in a white sort of mask.

“Now I am one of the bubble monsters; you shall be devoured next!”

He started to shove the foamy substance towards Armin as water splashed around them.

“Eren, you’re going to get the whole bathroom soaking wet!” Armin exclaimed, half laughing.

After an acceptable amount of bubbles adorned Armin’s head, the other boy finally calmed down and the splashing ceased.

“You know, I was thinking about something,” he said as he leaned against the wall behind him. “What if there were gigantic monsters out in the world and we lived our lives either trying to stay out of their reach or fighting them?”

Armin looked at him with a bemused expression, “Bubbles made you think of that?”

Eren shrugged his shoulders, “I guess. Do you think we’d make it in that sort of apocalyptic world?”

“Maybe. You’d probably get eaten pretty soon though because you were yelling at the monsters to fuck off or something,” Armin said with a grin.

“Oh really?” Eren retorted. “And where would you be?”

Armin’s grin stayed on his face as he replied in a haughty tone of voice, “Assisting humanity’s best with my vast intelligence, of course.”

“Oh, fuck off!” Eren shouted as he splashed Armin in the face with the warm water.

Armin splashed him back and the two laughed as they continued their splash war with one another. After a while, they quieted down again and were talking about how they thought their semester would turn out.

“You honestly shouldn’t have much of a problem,” Armin was saying as he held Eren’s wet and pruned hand, tracing the wrinkles with his own shriveled fingers. “You really had a good grasp of basic chemistry last semester. The class this time is just a continuation of all of that.”

“Great, so that means the stuff that I struggled with will only have more things piled onto them,” Eren said in a pessimistic tone.

“Well, I’ll be here to help you any time you need it!” Armin tried to reassure him.

“And then I can prove my dad right. I’ll be keeping you around just so I can scrape by for my own benefit,” Eren said as he flicked a few of the remaining bubbles.

“Forget your dad!” Armin said firmly. “This is about us looking out for one another. Helping each other to do better. And if we get to enjoy times like these with one another as well, then all the better!”

Eren looked at Armin with a look of pure appreciation.

“I love you,” he said quietly.

“I love you too,” Armin said as the two of them moved closer to one another so that they could share a tender kiss, not caring if any water splashed onto the floor as they did so.

When they finally emerged from their shared bath, they put a few towels down on the floor to soak up any water that had fallen onto it. They dressed in their pajamas for the night and walked to one of the two rooms in the dorm. Since the dorm was furnished, it already had a bed there.

“You want this room?” Eren asked Armin.

Armin did a brief survey of the bedroom before saying, “Yeah, this one is fine.”

“Ok, I’ll sleep with you tonight though,” Eren replied as he put his hands on his hips. “You know, just to make sure that this room is safe for you.”

Armin smiled, “Of course, that’s very gracious of you. Just tonight though?”

Eren returned the smile, “I suppose I could stay for a few more nights… Just to make completely sure.”

Eren helped Armin put bed sheets on the mattress before throwing a couple of large blankets over them. As they settled in, they looked out at the city skyline, its lights putting on a dazzling display against the night sky.

“So, we don’t have our first class together until the afternoon,” Eren said. “Want to meet up for lunch beforehand?”

“Sure, that sounds fine,” Armin replied. “Want to head to the noodle café?”

“Yes! I’ve had such a craving for that place!” Eren answered excitedly.

“Then I’ll see you there around 1 PM,” Armin said. “Just try to stay out of trouble.”

“Ha-ha,” Eren said sarcastically. “I’ll do my best, but no promises.”

The two of them talked for a while before they finally drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms. The city quieted outside their dorm room, and before long it was time for them to wake up for their first day of classes for the semester. They got ready for the day and then set out for the main campus. Once they arrived in the courtyard, they parted ways as they walked to their respective classroom buildings.

Armin found that he was having a difficult time concentrating on what the professor was saying to the class. He had spent virtually every moment of the past month with Eren, and now that they were apart he found that he missed him more than he thought he would. Actually, if he was completely honest, it was more than just missing Eren; it was as if he was craving his presence. Almost like he was going through withdrawals to not be in his company.

It was a terrible feeling, and one that he couldn’t brush off no matter how hard he tried.

Finally, the class was dismissed and Armin began to walk towards the stairs that led to his next class.

When he was halfway there, he turned and walked back to the entrance of the building to reenter the courtyard.

 _Maybe I can spot Eren if I hang out here for a bit_ , he thought to himself. _Even if we’re meeting up in a little while, it won’t hurt to talk for a few minutes._

He waited by one of the fountains and pretended to busy himself with his phone so that he wouldn’t look so awkward. As a few more minutes went by with no sign of Eren, he decided to give up and head to his next class.

Crestfallen, he slowly made his way up the stairs and entered the classroom, which was already almost full. He was forced to take a seat in the back, as those were the only desks still open.

Again, he found it almost impossible to concentrate on what the professor was saying and spent the next hour pining for Eren.

When he was released from class once again, he immediately set off for the café where he and Eren were supposed to meet for lunch. When he arrived, he took a seat at one of the tables by the window and waited for Eren. Time went on however, and he began to grow restless.

 _What’s taking him so long?_ he worried. _He couldn’t have forgotten, we just talked about this earlier._

When another couple of minutes went by, Armin pulled out his phone and began to call Eren. Just then, he caught a glimpse of the brunette walking up to the café. However, he was with someone.

It was Levi.

But the strangest part about it was that the two of them weren’t arguing like they usually did with one another. Eren was laughing, and Levi even had a slight smile on his face.

When Armin began to wonder if Levi had a long-lost friendly twin brother, Eren noticed him in the window and enthusiastically waved at him before coming inside. 

“Hey, guess who my TA is for my history class?” Eren asked Armin as he sat down next to the blonde.

Before Armin could say anything, Eren practically shouted, “This asshole right here!”

Levi rolled his eyes, but a faint grin began to cross his lips, “Don’t forget who’s in charge of grading your papers this semester, brat.”

Eren simply laughed, “Yeah, but that means you have to be fair when you do it. Otherwise, it’s straight to the Dean I go! And you’ll be out of a job.”

“Of course I’ll be fair,” Levi replied. “But that means when you receive your low grade, it will only be because of your poor writing.”

“Ha!” Eren exclaimed. “And when I write the best paper of the class, you’ll have to give it an A! And I can’t wait to see the expression on your face when that happens.”

The two of them exchanged looks that seemed to denote a degree of competition, but then their expressions softened.

“Well, I have to be back for my next class soon, so I’m going to order my lunch,” Levi said before he walked away to the counter.

Once Levi had left them alone at the table, Eren looked to Armin and asked, “So, how is the first day back so far? Do you think you’ll like your classes?”

Armin hesitated before answering. The truth of it was that he really didn’t know what to expect from either of the classes he had been to since his mind had been elsewhere.

“Uhh, I guess they seem ok,” he answered, trying to figure out how to reply to Eren’s question. “I guess I need a little more time to get back into the groove of things. How were your classes?”

“The first one was pretty boring,” Eren answered. “Honestly, I couldn’t stop thinking of you at first.”

Armin’s heart did a somersault at these words, but as Eren went on, he felt deflated again.

“But the history class with Levi seems like it will be interesting! He might not seem like it, but Levi can actually be kinda funny when he wants to. When he’s not being a dick, that is.”

Armin nodded and tried to look as happy as Eren did. But there was something gnawing at him on the inside. It was almost like jealousy.

He scolded himself when he realized that he was actually feeling a bit jealous of a guy that Eren very vocally detested. There was nothing going on between them, and Eren had proven countless times about how devoted he was to Armin.

 _Maybe I feel this way just because I was so miserable this morning, and now I’m finding out that Eren was able to have a distraction from the same thing_ , he reasoned.

When they went up to the counter where Levi was so that they could order their lunch as well, Armin couldn’t help but look at the older male from behind.

He was short, but he was very much in shape. His form was a bit muscular and very well-defined. And of course his face was shaped so elegantly with those angled cheekbones.

Armin wouldn’t say that he was attracted to Levi, but he definitely could see that the raven-haired male _was_ attractive.

 _I wonder why he’s still single_ , Armin thought.

When the three of them finally had their lunch, they ate in good spirits, despite the almost constant jabs and insults that Eren and Levi hurled at each other. Compared to previous engagements between the two, this time it almost seemed like the sort of insult contest that friends would have with each other.

 _Well, I should be happy at least that they are seemingly starting to get along_ , Armin thought, attempting to quiet the discomfort in his mind. _It certainly took long enough._

After their lunch, Levi left them for another class he was to help teach, while Armin and Eren journeyed to their chemistry class together. With Eren next to him in the class, Armin found that he was now able to focus on the material being presented to them, much to his relief.

Still, even if he wasn’t happy with himself for feeling it, he couldn’t shake the desire he had whenever he looked at Eren and imagined the boy getting along so well with another guy, even if it was a guy that they both had gotten to know over the last few months.

Eren was his and only his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought it would be interesting to have Armin to be put in more of Eren's position this time (remember Eren's reaction to Reiner a couple of chapters back?). Things will get more and more interconnected from here on out, and I'll be leaving details that hint to it all throughout my writing (although technically I've been doing that since pretty much the beginning, haha). I've recently gotten my job back since my leg has healed up, so I'll be pretty busy for a while. I will of course update whenever I can, and I have the plot I want to tell in my mind, so it will only be a matter of typing it up really. As always, I appreciate each and every comment that I get and am so grateful for all of you loyal readers who have come along for the ride! See you all next time :)


	17. I Am the Heart That You Call Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... it's been a while. I'm not even going to give any excuses, although I have a reason (once you read this chapter, that line will make sense, haha..). Life just came at me full force once the year started, but I've been working on this story still. I'm not going to give it up, but updates will most likely be very random. Anyway, sorry for the wait, and I hope you enjoy. Here is the song for this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uhL1npXgTI  
> You have no idea how much it means to me that there are people who enjoy my writing and have stuck around all this time :)

The first month back at school seemed to pass by in a blur. Before Armin knew it, it was already Valentine’s Day, and he was struggling with what he was going to get Eren for a gift. 

Eren had already told Armin not to get him anything; he had said that Valentine’s Day was a made up holiday designed by corporations to get people to needlessly spend money on frivolous things. If couples always treated each other the way that they envisioned doing so in their ideal Valentine’s image, then what use really was that day?

But Armin knew Eren better than that.

He highly suspected the other boy of sneakily getting him a gift, and would surprise him with it at some point during the day. And then Armin would be left looking like a cheap and ungrateful date. 

So feigning the need to buy some supplies for a made-up project in one of his classes, Armin had journeyed to the city mall to find Eren a gift. 

Although Eren decided to accompany him, which only served to complicate matters.

“Ooh, we should definitely check out this place,” Eren said, gesturing to an outdoors store nearby. “It’s been too long since we’ve been camping.”

Armin saw the opportunity which had pleasantly presented itself and didn’t hesitate to take it.

“Yeah, you’re right. You go on; I’m going to check this arts and crafts store over here.”

Eren turned to look at him, “You don’t want to come with me?”

Armin shook his head, “It’s not that I don’t want to, but I just need to get the supplies for my project.”

Eren frowned, but slowly nodded his head, “Ok… Wait, you never said exactly what your project is…”

Armin hesitated for a moment, “Uhh, it’s just for my… Anthropology class. It’s really boring; you wouldn’t want me to explain it to you in detail.”

Eren continued to frown, and his eyes slightly narrowed, but he seemed to accept the answer. 

“Alright, whatever you say. Well, I’ll meet you in the food court in a bit?”

“Sure!” Armin agreed, relieved to finally be able to pursue his objective of finding Eren a gift before time ran out.

The two parted ways and set off to their respective destinations. However, Armin glanced over his shoulder as he neared the arts and crafts store, and when he saw that Eren had entered the outdoors store, he changed his direction and headed off down the promenade.

There was a proverbial sea of people bustling about inside the mall that day. Armin wondered if many of them were on the same sort of mission he was.

He passed by several stores that ranged from clothing outlets to book stores, but none that seemed to contain anything that Eren would really want. Just as he began to grow discouraged, he noticed a music shop that sold everything from CDs to vintage records. 

_Eren would love some old CDs!_ Armin thought to himself excitedly.

He briskly walked into the store and began to look around for some CDs to Eren’s favorite bands. He perused several aisles before finding his way back towards the entrance to the store.

It was then that he heard a familiar voice come from behind him.

“Are you finding everything alright, Mr. Armin Arlert?”

Armin jumped in surprise before he turned around to face the person who had addressed him.

His eyes fell upon none other than Reiner. The tall blonde was wearing a collared shirt that was tucked into some solid black pants. He had an amused expression on his face.

“Oh, hey Reiner!” Armin blurted out. “What are you doing here?”

Reiner laughed slightly, “I work here…”

It was then that Armin noticed the nametag on the older male’s shirt. 

Armin laughed slightly and put a hand behind his head, “Oh! Well that’s cool! I had no idea.”

“Yeah, I picked this job up a few months ago,” Reiner said. “I’m the front of house manager.”

“Manager?” Armin asked. “I bet you make some good money.”

This time Reiner really laughed, “It pays the bills, but it’s nothing great.”

Armin nodded, not really knowing what else to say. He and Reiner had spoken a bit through text the last few weeks, but Armin had been busy with school and Eren. Not to mention the fact that Eren really didn’t care for the guy.

“So what brings you into my store today?” Reiner asked the smaller blonde.

“I was… looking for a gift actually,” Armin answered slowly. 

Reiner raised an eyebrow. “Ah, a gift, eh? Who’s it for?”

Armin hesitated a moment before replying, “Eren…”

Reiner’s expression immediately changed to one of subtle distaste. “Oh. You’re still hanging around that one, are you?”

Armin didn’t really appreciate the implication behind the question, so he answered back a bit dryly, “We happen to live together now for a matter of fact.”

Reiner did his best to keep a neutral expression.

“Is that so?”

Armin averted his gaze. After a few seconds of silence he said, “Well, I should really get back to my search. Nice to see you.”

He heard a slight exhale from Reiner at this.

“Look, I’m sorry if I offended you. I just think you can do a lot better than having a friend like that.”

Armin returned his gaze to the other male sharply, “What business is it of yours who I choose to spend my time with?”

“Fair enough,” Reiner said as he shrugged his shoulders. “But ask yourself this: would a friend, a real friend, pressure you into going to places or doing things that you really didn’t like? Like wild parties? Would they get upset over who you choose to spend your time with, while they spend their own time with whomever they please? You just asked that same question yourself.”

Armin thought about what Reiner was saying. It was true; Eren did ask Armin to go out and do a lot of things that he really didn’t feel comfortable doing. But Armin always figured he was just trying to get him out of his shell. And he had been inviting Levi to meet up with them a lot lately. If Armin ever even tried to bring up inviting Reiner along, he could only imagine what sort of argument would break out. Still, Levi had never been as antagonistic to him as Reiner was to Eren. However, he wasn’t really all that receptive though either.

“I bet he downplayed his own desire to receive a gift today, which guilt-tripped you into coming in here now, while I’m sure he has a well-thought-out gift waiting to spring on you and show you up,” Reiner continued. “I mean, who does that?” 

Armin felt terrible. He didn’t want to imagine Eren being like that. No, he wasn’t like that at all. He couldn’t be.

He snapped back to his senses and glared at Reiner, “You’re wrong! Eren and I care about each other!”

Reiner simply gazed back with a cool expression, “Maybe. But maybe I’m right.”

Armin stopped to consider what he had heard again when another very familiar voice from behind him startled him once more.

“What’s all this?”

Eren had walked into the store and had a very confused and annoyed look on his face.

“Oh, Eren!” Armin exclaimed in surprise.

“Ah, the Little Hunter makes his entrance,” Reiner said in a tone full of contempt. “We were just discussing you.”

“Oh really?” Eren said in an equally derisive voice. “All great things, right?”

Reiner scoffed, “Hardly.”

Eren turned his attention to Armin who was visibly nervous. 

“So this is where you snuck off to. To meet with him?”

“No!” Armin exclaimed. “I didn’t know he works here!”

“But you wouldn’t be in a music shop normally…” Eren said perceptively.

“That’s right, he wouldn’t be,” Reiner chimed in. “So why would he be here? Surely not to discuss relationship problems to someone willing to listen…”

“What?” Armin asked incredulously. 

Eren’s eyes narrowed and he turned to Armin with an expression of pure confusion and hurt.

“That’s not what we were talking about at all!” Armin said earnestly.

Eren continued to stare at Armin before frowning, “I don’t know what’s going on here, but it’s definitely something weird. I’m leaving.”

And with that, the brunette turned on his heels and walked out of the store.

“Eren, wait!” Armin called after him, but the other boy kept walking.

Armin rounded on Reiner, “What the hell was that?!”

Reiner shrugged, “All I did was simply ask questions. Did you see the way he acted? It was childish and immature. He wouldn’t even hear you out. He was living up to everything I said before.”

Armin continued to glare at him, “You goaded him. I have to leave. I’ve got to go after him. Goodbye.”

As Armin turned away and walked quickly out of the store, he heard Reiner call after him, “Just think about what all I said today. You’ll see.”

Armin didn’t turn back. He was so angry. Angry at Reiner. Angry at Eren. And most of all, angry at himself that he allowed the situation to unfold at all. He should have left Reiner behind as soon as he started bad-mouthing Eren.

But now it seemed like the entire day was ruined. He had to find Eren and make things right.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to search for long. Eren was sitting at a table by himself in the food court with a stormy look on his face.

Armin slowly walked over to the table to take the seat across from him.

Eren pretended not to notice as Armin delicately sat down and simply continued to stare off in a random direction.

Armin allowed a few moments of silence to go by before saying a small, “Hey…”

“Save it,” Eren snapped. “I’m not interested in any excuses you may have.”

Armin flared up at this, “I don’t have any ‘excuses’; I have a _reason_!”

Eren finally looked at the blonde, glaring at him with an intensity Armin had never seen before, “Well, I don’t want to hear that either!”

Armin felt a fire begin to blaze within him, but right as he was about to shout back at Eren, he stopped and simply let out a large sigh.

“Eren, I swear to you,” he said quietly, “I didn’t know Reiner worked there. And while he was talking shit about you, I defended you. I just wish you would believe me.”

He looked down at the table they were sitting at, noticing the dried stains of food and drink from over the years that hadn’t been properly cleaned off. After a few moments, a hand reached out over the table, its palm face up.

“I’m sorry,” Eren replied softly. “I believe you. It’s just… I don’t trust him. And I hate that you two have gotten to know each other. I want to protect you. But if I am to be able to do that, I have to know what’s going on.”

Armin looked up at the other boy, his green eyes wide in sincerity. He took his hand.

“Nothing is going on between us,” Armin reassured him. “I have texted him a few times the past few months, but nothing more than that. And they were all pointless conversations anyway.”

Eren frowned a bit at the revelation, but he also seemed to be somewhat relieved. 

“Well, at least now you’ve told me. I guess I shouldn’t control who you can and can’t talk to. But just know, I really don’t like him.”

Armin nodded with a slight smile, “I know. And I appreciate your not trying to dominate my life. But I won’t talk to him anymore. He said some weird stuff today, and I think it’s best I not be in contact with him from now on.” 

“Oh?” Eren asked, perplexed. “What did he say?”

Armin chuckled slightly, “Don’t worry about it, it’s nothing important.”

Eren frowned, “We’re supposed to be finished keeping secrets from each other, remember?”

Armin pulled his hand back and held it up defensively, “I’m not keeping secrets; I just know how you’ll react. You know, the same way you react to anything concerning that guy.”

Eren’s eyes narrowed, but he eventually conceded the point, “Fine. Well, let’s get something to eat and then get out of here. I don’t think I’ll be coming back for a while…”

The two of them settled on a sushi place. The sushi rolls weren’t great, but they weren’t bad either. The price was cheap, so there couldn’t be many complaints to make.

After they finished eating, they left the mall and walked through downtown back towards the university campus. The air was quite cold, and a strong wind blew through the streets between the towering buildings above them.

“Shit! It’s cold as hell!” Eren exclaimed as he put his hands to his mouth in an attempt to warm them.

“Technically, Hell is rather hot,” Armin corrected him in a chiding manner. “But yes, it is quite cold today.”

Eren rolled his eyes as the two kept walking. Eventually, they were only one block away from the campus, and from there it was only a few more to the dorm building. It was then that a little café caught Eren’s eye.

“Hey!” he said excitedly. “Come look at this!”

Without another word, he took off towards the place, darting right out into the middle of the road. Armin hesitated and began to call out after him, but then stopped. There were no cars at the moment. The blonde begrudgingly stepped into the road after Eren, who by this point was arriving at the other side of the street.

As Armin hurried across and reached the other side, a car flew up to them, but was nowhere near hitting either of the two males. It blew its horn anyway as it passed.

“Really…” Armin muttered. “I wasn’t even in the street anymore.”

“Fuck ‘em,” Eren casually replied while studying the menu plastered to the café’s window. “Hey, this place is a hookah bar! I thought so!”

“A hookah bar?” Armin asked quizzically.

“Yeah, you know, the flavored juice stuff that you warm up with hot coals and then smoke out of a fancy pipe thing,” Eren explained.

Armin’s look of confusion did not go away.

Eren sighed exasperatedly before excitedly saying, “Let’s go here tonight! Just the two of us.”

“A dinner date?” Armin asked him.

“Well, yeah,” Eren replied. “When was the last time we did something like that?”

Armin thought about it for a moment. It had been a while. Since before the start of the semester. 

“Alright, I suppose so…” he said slowly as he began to look the place over.

Eren nudged him, “C’mon, it’ll be fun. You’ll see.”

Armin had no choice but to take Eren at his word. He was rarely wrong about these things, so maybe it would turn out to be a good time.

_Or maybe this is just another example of him pressuring me into something I don’t want to do._

The thought entered Armin’s mind suddenly and without invitation. He promptly shook it away, but still the thought echoed there for almost the entire way back to the dorms.

A few hours passed, and once night had fallen, Armin and Eren had both showered and gotten dressed to head out to the hookah bar.

The walk didn’t take them long, and soon they were entering the dimly lit establishment. There was a red glow to the place, and a mixture of pleasant smelling smoke hung in the air. There were a few groups of people present, all seated at low to the ground tables on stylish looking pillows. There was middle-eastern style music playing from the speakers to really set the mood.

“See? I told you this place would be cool,” Eren said cheerily as he approached the hostess.

“Yeah,” Armin said quietly, more to himself than Eren, “very cool.”

Once they were seated at their table, the two of them were asked which flavor of hookah they would like. 

Armin looked at Eren, unsure of what to ask for.

“How about… a piña colada flavor?” Eren asked after considering his options for a moment.

The hostess nodded, but before she could walk away to submit their order, Eren called out to her once again.

“Oh, and could we get two gin and tonics also?”

The woman stopped to turn and eye the both of them for a moment, but then shrugged and walked off again.

“Eren, we’re not legally allowed to order alcohol!” Armin protested.

Eren reclined back on the pillow he was sitting on, “Ahh, what’s the worst that could happen? She’d say no? She didn’t! See? You just have to… go for it sometimes.”

Armin frowned, still not convinced, “The worst thing that could happen is that we both get arrested for underage possession of alcohol.”

“You never seemed to care at those parties we’ve been to,” Eren replied nonchalantly.

“That was different! We weren’t in public,” Armin argued. 

“The point is, we could have still been busted,” Eren continued. “Bad things can happen any time, whether we try to avoid them or not. So it’s best to just live a little.”

Armin was about to refute Eren again, but the hostess had returned with the hookah and their drinks. She put everything down on the table, bade them a fine evening, and then departed once more.

As Armin studied the interesting looking device, Eren had already begun to try and work it.

“Ok, so this tube here, or hose, is what you use to breathe in the hookah. Wait, is it hookah you breathe in, or is that just the name of the… thing here? We breathe in the tobacco, right? Anyway, suck on this.”

Eren passed the hose that was connected to the hookah apparatus over to Armin.

“Really…? ‘Suck on this’?” Armin repeated with a skeptical look. “I thought you knew how this thing worked.”

“I do!” Eren replied defensively. “And yes, suck on that. You’re good at that sort of thing, trust me, I know.”

A shocked expression crossed Armin’s face, but before he could fire back at Eren, he noticed the small smile that began to creep across the other boy’s face.

“You look so cute when you’re flustered,” Eren said in a sly tone of voice.

“Well, then I guess I look cute all the time since I’m constantly having to put up with you,” Armin retaliated, a smile also beginning to cross his face.

Eren looked at him with a happy expression, “Exactly.”

He then returned his attention to the hookah device,” Ok, so while you’re sucking, I’ll be heating the coals up here on this foil. That will vaporize the flavored tobacco in there. I’m not exactly sure how the intricacies of this thing work; I just know that the coals need to be kept lit and we pass this between us and inhale.”

“I thought the term was ‘suck’…” Armin said dryly as he looked at the hose again.

“Now you’re starting to understand,” Eren replied in a cheeky tone.

Armin rolled his eyes and waited for Eren to light the coals. Once he had done so, he began to breathe in through the hose, or suck as Eren described it. Bubbles began to flow inside of the hookah where the water was stored, and then Armin could taste the pineapple and coconut flavor of the tobacco.

He began to cough a bit after a few moments, the sensation being new for him.

“You alright?” Eren asked him as he took hold of the hose.

Armin coughed a bit more, but then regained his breath, “Yeah, it’s just… weird. Eren, this stuff can’t be good for you.”

Eren was finishing up inhaling his first hit, so couldn’t immediately respond. He did much better than Armin had, keeping the smoke in his lungs for a few seconds before exhaling it all in a long stream of coconut and pineapple scented fog.

“It’s not,” Eren admitted, “but every once in a while won’t hurt.”

He then held up his glass of what looked like sprite with a lime in it, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Armin felt a knot tie in his stomach. He had completely forgotten it was Valentine’s Day. After his and Eren’s spat at the mall, it completely pushed all thought of the occasion out of his mind. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Armin replied, trying to sound as calm as he could.

As they took a sip of their drinks, Armin noticed it had a very distinct pine sort of flavor. The carbonated water in it helped some, as did the lime, but it wasn’t the sort of drink he was used to.

“Eren, why did you order this?” Armin asked as he held the glass away from him and studied it.

Eren simply shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know. I heard it mentioned in a song recently and wanted to try it.”

An Eren-reason as ever.

The two of them spent the rest of their time chatting and sipping on their drinks, interspersing the moments with puffing on the hookah. Just as Armin was starting to get the hang of it, their flavored tobacco had run out and the coals they had had all turned to ash.

Eren finished his drink as a rather catchy sounding song began to play. 

“Wanna dance?” he asked.

Armin finished his drink as well before asking, “Now?”

“Yes, now!” Eren answered back as he jumped to his feet and held out a hand to Armin.

Armin hesitated for a moment before taking hold of Eren’s waiting hand. He was led to the center of the dance floor where a couple of other people were already dancing. 

“C’mon, just get in close and… move your hips,” Eren instructed Armin as he pressed up against the blonde.

“Ok…” Armin replied, a bit unsure of himself. He nonetheless began to move as best as he could with the beat of the music, and surprisingly, found the rhythm pretty quickly. 

He and Eren danced with each other for the rest of the song and the next, not caring about anyone else around them. Armin didn’t know if it was the hookah, the gin, or Eren’s convincing personality that made it easier for him to do all of this. It was probably a combination of all three.

After a while, the two of them had grown to be rather tired, so as the last song they danced to died down, they made sure they had all of their belongings, paid for the hookah and the drinks, and left the aromatic establishment behind.

As they crossed the street, Eren stopped Armin.

“Wait, I want to give you something.”

Armin watched as Eren pulled out a small box from his pocket, and opened it. Inside was a leather bracelet that had embroidered on it a dark blue and bronze design. 

“It’s from Japan. It’s supposed to bring you good luck,” Eren explained.

“Eren…” Armin said quietly as he took the bracelet and studied it. 

“I know we weren’t getting each other anything for today, but I saw this and really wanted you to have it,” Eren continued to explain. “I hope you- what’s wrong?”

Armin had been trying his hardest not to let the tears well up in his eyes, but the effort was simply too much.

“I was going to get you a CD today,” he said softly. “That’s why I was in that store. And then Reiner came along and ruined everything.”

Eren gently took Armin’s hands into his own, “Hey, look at me. I don’t need anything like that, as nice as it would have been. You already gave me a gift today. Coming out here with me, and sharing this experience? That is a great gift right there.”

Armin looked into those earnest green eyes, “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Eren nodded. “Now, come on. Let’s get back to the dorm before we freeze to death out here.”

Armin chuckled softly. As they walked back to the dorm, he put the bracelet on around his wrist, vowing to keep it forever. He agreed with Eren in that experiences shared with someone very dear to another were more valuable than any material item. Still, he would cherish that bracelet as much as he cherished any experience spent with Eren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, told ya there would be more going on between Armin, Eren, and Reiner. And yes, there will be even MORE in the near future. This story is going to be ramping up starting now, as the foundations have been laid for where I want to take it. It will still have some happy and pure little moments, but it will not be all sunshine. Fair warning now. Please let me know what you thought, as always! It's good to be back :D


End file.
